Knowledge Sufficiency in the Era of Contemporary Digital Technologies

Abstract

Knowledge management (KM) and the related literature on intellectual capital (IC) have a long-standing tradition of emphasizing the fundamental role of human knowledge, including know-how, reasoning, and judgement, as the central pillar of organizational decision-making and value creation. It represents one of the key aspects of what has been traditionally considered as “sufficient” knowledge utilized in knowledge work and to successfully conducting complex knowledge-intensive work tasks. In this school of thought, humans are seen as reliable agents while non-human sources, such as digital technologies, pose technical and institutional risks. Simultaneously, a corpus of scholarly work in management and information systems has argued and provided empirical evidence on the superiority of digital technology enabled data-driven decisions in terms of their quickness and accuracy, claiming that algorithms consistently outperform humans in decision-making. In this school of thought, the cognitive limitations of human agents and the risk of potential occurrence of human error are underlined, while the processing power and consistency of digital technologies considered a gold standard. To overcome the hurdle related to “algorithmic aversion” yet mitigating the risk of falling to the trap of “artificial certainty”, this study embarks 1) conceptualizing knowledge sufficiency in the era of contemporary digital technologies and 2) elaborating the degree of technological assistance required to reach the elusive levels of knowledge sufficiency in complex, non-routine organizational tasks and processes. Through conceptual work and empirical snippets, this study helps organizations maximize the benefits of technology-driven knowledge while safeguarding the uncertainties of critical decisions, helping them to successfully navigate the landscape of contemporary digital technologies.