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This paper reports on the development of Aqua Universitas ‐ Anglian Water’s University of Water ‐ and the Company’s journey towards wisdom creation. It supports the Company’s vision of “creating and sustaining knowledge for sustainable water management”. This vision draws on the work done by Nonaka and Takeuchi and recognizes different kinds of knowledge and methods of knowledge transfer. Aqua Universitas will enable Anglian Water to have the best people, teams and organization to provide the best service ‐ through wisdom creation and exploitation.

The purpose of the paper is to improve traditional knowledge management models in light of complexity theory, emphasizing the importance of moving away from hierarchical relationships among data, information, knowledge, and wisdom.

Traditional definitions and models are critically reviewed and their weaknesses highlighted. A transformational perspective of the traditional hierarchies is proposed to highlight the need to develop better perspectives. The paper demonstrates the holistic nature of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom, and how they are all based on an interpretation of existence.

Existing models are logically extended, by adopting a complexity‐based perspective, to propose a new model – the E2E model – which highlights the non‐linear relationships among existence, data, information, knowledge, wisdom, and enlightenment, as well as the nature of understanding as the process that defines the differences among these constructs. The meaning of metas (such as meta‐data, meta‐information, and meta‐knowledge) is discussed, and a reconstitution of knowledge management is proposed.

The importance of understanding as a concept to create useful metaphors for knowledge management practitioners is emphasized, and the crucial importance of the metas for knowledge management is shown.

A new model of the cognitive system of knowledge is proposed, based on application of complexity theory to knowledge management. Understanding is identified as the basis of the conversion process among an extended range of knowledge constructs, and the scope of knowledge management is redefined.

The objective of this paper is to measure the level of organizational wisdom of firms and verify its influence on the value they produce.

This study seeks to establish linkage between organizational wisdom and value creation with the development of a new model based on the contributions of North's wisdom matrix and the Jordan and Jones model. The proposed model, using primary data from the Portuguese textile sector, is tested through recourse to a structural equation model.

The results point to the conclusion that companies with high organizational wisdom do manage to improve their efficiency and effectiveness but this proves insufficient for actually increasing the level of value created when taking into account the industry's prevailing environment.

Firms may apply this model to ascertain their level of organizational wisdom. This model may also be deployed to determine this organizational wisdom level for a set of companies (a company cluster) or even a sector.

The main contribution of this paper stems from the explanatory value of the proposed model as it enables the measurement of a firm's organizational wisdom and its influence on the final value produced.

This study aims to investigate the concept of “practical wisdom” which may be defined as the ability to effectively manage one’s rational knowledge and to read and respond appropriately to the interplay of other people's emotions and one's own and their values. The aims of this study also are (1) to investigate the relationship between the spiritual, emotional and rational capacities which underpin practical wisdom and (2) to analyse the relationship between the practical wisdom co-created in and between individuals through these three capacities.

This study adopts a case study methodology by considering the experience provided by a group of hikers who organized a trip to cross the island of Gran Canarias and its natural parks.

This study proposes that the presence of spiritual, emotional or rational capacities can boost individual self-awareness, self-control and empathy, which can help workers in general and knowledge workers, in particular, more effectively tackle difficult situations, remain calm and collectively develop and enact appropriate responses to these situations. Therefore, results show that the concept of practical wisdom allows for the identification of both the nature of the capacities that contribute to the effective handling of difficult situations and them and the balance that needs to be developed between them.

For knowledge workers, the study provides a framework and an explanatory framework to help them understand how rational, spiritual and emotional capacities both interact and are operationalized to tackle difficult problems. Furthermore, it enables them to identify situations where success to consider such interactions, leads to develop and implement appropriate responses to such situations.

A proper balance of emotional, rational and spiritual capacities may enable people to have a more holistic vision of difficult situations, allowing the finding of appropriate solutions to complex problems (i.e. practical wisdom). This study contributes to strengthening knowledge workers' perception and understanding of the links between the knowledge stocks and knowledge flows that relate to a practical perspective of wisdom.

This article aims to define and explore the nature of wisdom, managerial wisdom, organisational wisdom and wisdom management.

The paper draws on some of the diverse writings on wisdom, and explores the relevance of wisdom in the context of knowledge management.

Wisdom has received little attention in the information management and systems, knowledge management and management literature. This is surprising since in this knowledge‐based economy the link between data, information and knowledge is seen as pivotal by practitioners, consultants and academics.

The article explores the nature of organisational wisdom and identifies a number of areas for further theory‐making and empirical investigation.

Our children may learn about the heroes of the past.

Our task is to make ourselves architects of the future.

The twenty-first century confronts society with challenges that will determine the future of humanity and the planet. Such challenges defy traditional analysis. Paralyzed by the inadequacy of our standard logic, on which much of traditional scholarship relies, we search for meaningful and effective understandings that can guide us – understandings that seem inherently wise and just, and not simply empirically confirmable. Few of us question the need for wisdom, yet to date, academic scholarship has failed to address the role that it plays, and could play, in supporting international organizational processes capable of addressing the world’s most demanding societal challenges.² This chapter explores the nature of pragmatic wisdom – wisdom that incorporates both profound understanding and action. It uses the founding of an international development initiative, Uniterra, to highlight the need for and influence of wisdom in international organizational processes and outcomes. Uniterra’s core structure and central process involve partnering – forming networks of non-hierarchical relationships. The chapter therefore investigates the wisdom needed to create and maintain global partnerships. Given the chapter’s focus on pragmatic wisdom, it also explores the concepts of hope and courage, for without hope and courage, wisdom could never move beyond conceptualization to action. The writing style purposely differs from that of most scholarly articles. Beyond presenting a specific case, the writing offers readers the opportunity to experience wisdom via indigenous proverbs from a wide range of the world’s more pragmatic wisdom traditions. So as not to interrupt readers’ appreciation of the proverbs or reduce their impact or meaning merely to the underlying logical constructs, the chapter uses endnotes rather than more traditional text references.

The 21st century confronts society with challenges that will determine the future of humanity and the planet. Such challenges defy traditional analysis. Paralyzed by the inadequacy of our standard logic, on which much of traditional scholarship relies, we search for meaningful and effective understandings that can guide us—understandings that seem inherently wise and just, and not simply empirically confirmable. Few of us question the need for wisdom, yet to date, academic scholarship has failed to address the role that it plays, and could play, in supporting international organizational processes capable of addressing the world’s most demanding societal challenges. ² This chapter explores the nature of pragmatic wisdom—wisdom that incorporates both profound understanding and action. It uses the founding of an international development initiative, Uniterra, to highlight the need for and influence of wisdom in international organizational processes and outcomes. Uniterra’s core structure and central process involve partnering—forming networks of nonhierarchical relationships. The chapter therefore investigates the wisdom needed to create and maintain global partnerships. Given the chapter’s focus on pragmatic wisdom, it also explores the concepts of hope and courage, for without hope and courage, wisdom could never move beyond conceptualization to action. The writing style purposely differs from that of most scholarly articles. Beyond presenting a specific case, the writing offers readers the opportunity to experience wisdom via indigenous proverbs from a wide range of the world’s more pragmatic wisdom traditions. So as not to interrupt readers’ appreciation of the proverbs or reduce their impact or meaning merely to the underlying logical constructs, the chapter uses endnotes rather than more traditional text references.

The purpose of this paper is to explore beyond the knowledge economy and venture into the wise society.

The paper is a review of existing publications and original thinking.

The word is at the dawn of the wise society. Science and universities have a crucial role to play on the path towards such a society.

The paper contributes to the understanding and the development from knowledge to wisdom.

This paper aims to provide a number of distinct approaches towards this goal, i.e. to translate the information contained in the repositories into knowledge. For centuries, humans have gathered and generated data to study the different phenomena around them. Consequently, there are a variety of information repositories available in many different fields of study. However, the ability to access, integrate and properly interpret the relevant data sets in these repositories has mainly been limited by their ever expanding volumes. The goal of translating the available data to knowledge, eventually leading to wisdom, requires an understanding of the relations, ordering and associations among the data sets.

While the existing information repositories are rich in content, there are no easy means of understanding the relevance or influence of the different facts contained therein. Therefore, the interest of the general populace in terms of prioritizing some data items (or facts) over others is usually lost. In this paper, the goal is to provide approaches for transforming the available facts in the information repositories to wisdom. The authors target the lack of order in the facts presented in the repositories to create a hierarchical distribution based on the common understanding, expectations, opinions and judgments of the different users.

The authors present multiple approaches to extract and order the facts related to each concept, using both automatic and semi-automatic methods. The experiments show that the results of these approaches are similar and very close to the instinctive ordering of facts by users.

The authors believe that the work presented in this paper, with some additions, can be a feasible step to convert the available knowledge to wisdom and a step towards the future of online information systems.

This paper aims to propose and explain a procedure for developing practical wisdom in novice managers.

A heuristic model of practical management wisdom which articulates and displays its dynamic nature was constructed from the literature. The model was then applied to two recently published narrative accounts of effective management, and to an empirical case study that was conducted by the author, to test the heuristic value of the model for novice managers.

The literature review revealed that practical wisdom relies on a dynamic interaction between perception, experience, character, and an insightful vision of what is proximately and ultimately good for people, organizations, and business. The applications of the model demonstrated its capacity to illuminate the thinking and actions of senior managers for novices.

Further empirical evaluation of the model is required to confirm its heuristic value.

The model and the applications reported in this paper should be of use to academics and human resources practitioners interested in the professional development of managers within classroom settings and organizational settings.

The heuristic model is an advance in that it brings together and integrates a wide range of views about the factors that constitute and enable the operation of practical management wisdom. The applications commence the task of enriching the abstract model with illustrative examples, and provide a practical means of assisting novice managers to understand what has often been considered ineffable and inaccessible.