From Knowledge to Action: Exploring the Interactions between Theory and Practice

The practice of Knowledge Management (KM) has been conceptualized as a set of organizational processes that facilitate knowledge availability to support decision making, inform actions, and enhance performance. An underlying assumption of the KM practice is that knowledge availability would lead to knowledgeable actions. However, the notion of a ‘theory-practice’ gap remains an issue in many fields. By adopting the phenomenon of knowledge mobilization to represent the interactions between the two domains, this research aims to answer the question of what affords for theory-practice gaps to emerge when knowledge is mobilized in action. The findings from a case study of ICT graduates who are required to engage with theory and use it in their practice indicates that professionals frame their situations by drawing mainly upon a practical rather than a theoretical knowledge base acquired through experience and socialization.