This conceptual paper gives a new interpretation of knowledge management, based on Vygotskian psychology, critiquing the dominating paradigm of Nonaka. We question the role of individual and organizational learning and creation in his model; thus proposing a whole new focus for knowledge management research and radical managerial consequences for practitioners.

The paper presents the work of Nonaka and associates from 1994 and forward and the limited critique that have appeared in press.

It identifies the major flaws of Nonaka’s theory, as 

1. The eclecticism,
2. The reductionism, Individual and organisational learning to be understood by one model,
3. The behaviourist and cognitive psychological underpinning,
4. The flawed understanding of tacit knowledge.

As an alternative is presented a model of individual learning based on a Vygotskyan psychology and some of the implications organisational learning.

The findings of the paper

The paper shows 

1. how much more complex than perceived by Nonaka and associates, it is to access tacit knowledge and 
2. discusses methods of accessing it, 
3. the limits of these methods and 
4. what to do when it cannot be accessed.