Knowledge, Wisdom, Leadership and Vision: A Conceptual Framework for Learning Organizations

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to define the term 'knowledge' and to explore the authentic sources of knowledge, wisdom, leadership and vision and their relationship for a learning organization. Design/methodology/approach: An extensive literature survey, mostly articles from top relevant journals is used to investigate the philosophical foundations. Contemporary scholarly work, classic literature and personal observations are used to clarify the meaning and development of framework. Findings: Knowledge is the sum total of divine knowledge and scientific knowledge. Divine knowledge is authentic, spiritual and ethical-based while scientific knowledge comprises professional and technical know how about a phenomenon. This combination creates wisdom both at individual level and at organizational level. Leadership equipped with this knowledge and wisdom, will be authentic, ethical, spiritual, transformational while the vision of such organizations will be sound, clear and compelling. Research limitations/implications: The research is based on the literature review and the personal understanding and observations of the author. The conceptual framework needs to be tested and explored further for its validation and reliability. Practical implications: Following this framework, the learning organizations are expected to have developed people, sustained profit, integrated society and pervasive spirituality and pervasive spirituality. Originality/value: The paper provides a unique conceptual framework for learning organizations where authentic sources of knowledge combined with scientific knowledge is shown as the foundation for crating wisdom, leadership and vision in one setting.