Why a 400 year old idea will take you on a modern knowledge journey

“scientia potentia est”

Does this ring a bell with you? No? Then you have probably been one of the students who did not study Latin at high school. Yet, I strongly believe that you have already heard of this aphorism’s translation within your personal or educational career: Knowledge is power.

A Short History Check   

The Latin aphorism goes back to Sir Francis Bacon’s work “Meditationes Sacrae”  in 1597 and has been rephrased in various contexts by other philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes or Michel Foucault for example (Biography, 2014). Actually, the complete phrase from Sir Francis Bacon reads “ipsa scientia potestas est” and translates to “knowledge itself is power” but for the sake of simplicity we will just go with “knowledge is power”. As philosopher, attorney and statesmen living from 1561 to 1626, Sir Francis Bacon has had great influenced on the world of science and knowledge in the era of renaissance (Klein, 2016). If you have followed some classes on research methodology you may be familiar with inductive and deductive reasoning. While deduction was considered the common approach back at that time, Sir Francis Bacon argued that knowledge can only be developed upon inductive reasoning and careful observation. He has therefore been called the father of empiricism.

You may now wonder what a philosopher from over 400 years ago has to do with the blog post you are currently reading. If knowledge is power, it is also a manageable asset for individuals, start-ups, big corporations, governments and NGOs – literally for everyone. Therefore the right approach to manage this resource needs to be found. Within my blog posts, I would like to invite you on a journey into the world of knowledge management, a topic by which I have been fascinated by since my Bachelor studies in International Business. Since graduating in the beginning of 2018, I have worked in two international companies within the fashion and e-commerce sector and realized that companies who actively take a step towards encouraging employees to share their knowledge and thereby contributing to an organizational knowledge base, profit from a rewarding knowledge and working environment.

Intrinsic Motivation and Higher Life Satisfaction  

In particular, the question how to promote knowledge sharing behavior is a fascinating one, as it includes psychological aspects of human behavior. According to a 2015 research investigating the relation between informal help and subjective well-being in a cross-cultural context, “individuals helping others are more likely to report a higher level of life satisfaction than their less helpful counterparts” (Oarga et. al, 2015, p. 251). Within a sample of 23 countries, the researchers tested whether the effect of an individuals’ helping behavior on their well-being is either weakened or strengthened depending on their expectations of receiving a reward or their cultural setting, as in certain countries “helping represents a widespread behavior” (p. 243). Following the self-determination theory, helping others is good for the personal well-being if it is intrinsically motivated i.e. the individual enjoys the act of helping someone per se and does not expect rewards in return. Yet, a culture where helping is a common ritual influences the individual’s satisfaction to a certain degree. The authors also asked the question why helping others provides “greater emotional benefits when individuals do not expect help to be reciprocated” (p. 251). The answer: extrinsic goals such as the fear of punishment or the expectation of a negative outcome for the individual are “false” motivators, which do not positively influence the individual’s well-being or health.

Have you ever thought about what motivates you to help others? Is it a smile or a simple “thank you” that encourages you? Let me know what you think in the comments section below this post. As for me, I can definitely support the view of the self-determination theory, as helping others is intrinsically motivating. Most of the times, I even receive rewards such as positive verbal or non-verbal feedback. If the topic I am helping with is a bit more complex, I might even have to do some research myself, which in return leads to a gain in knowledge for me.

Are you ready to follow me on our knowledge journey?

Within the next weeks, you will hear more about terms such as organizational knowledge base, knowledge sharing behavior and knowledge management – that sounds like lots of knowledge, doesn’t it? But no need to be scared! Knowledge Management does not have to become a huge impervious project, it can be executed on a small scale, individual level – and that is what I would like to focus on. I will provide you with small and simple knowledge hacks and tutorials on tools you use every day at work or university: Word, WordPress, OneNote and Co.

I believe in “sharing is caring” and the same is true for resources and ideas. If you have any topic you would like to know more about, let me know in the comments section below.

Bibliography

• Biography.com “Francis Bacon”. (2014). Retrieved 6 March 2020, from https://www.biography.com/scholar/francis-bacon
• Klein, Jürgen, “Francis Bacon”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Retrieved 6 March 2020, from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/francis-bacon/
• Oarga, Cristina & Stavrova, Olga & Fetchenhauer, Detlef. (2014). When and why is helping others good for well-being? The role of belief in reciprocity and conformity to society’s expectations. European Journal of Social Psychology. 45. 10.1002/ejsp.2092.
• Picture within Collage: Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Baron Veru – Paul van Somer als Kunstdruck oder handgemaltes Gemälde. (2020). Retrieved 6 March 2020, from https://www.kunstkopie.de/a/somer-paul-van/sirfrancisbacon1561-1626b.html