Aristotelian phronesis as a key factor for leadership in the knowledge-creating company according to Ikujiro Nonaka

Abstract

Some Western organizational studies scholars have proposed that Aristotelian Phronesisrepresents a way of including practical reason in research on business topics such as decision-making, knowledge management, ethics and leadership. Ikujiro Nonaka, a Japanese scholar with notable theoretical and practical contributions to knowledge creation in organizations and with extensive experience in Japanese corporations, has joined this group of academics. As an Eastern thinker, he takes on a Western classical tradition, namely the virtue of Phronesis, making an important contribution to the application of ethical notions to business practice, in this case knowledge management. To locate his conceptualization of Aristotelian practical wisdom, we briefly describe his theory of knowledge creation, pointing to phroneticleadership skills as essential drivers of knowledge creation in organizations. Furthermore, we assess Nonaka’s incorporation of practical rationality from the point of view of the Western classical tradition.To conclude, we discuss the scope and limits of the use of Phronesisin Nonaka´s contribution, and ultimately suggest that incorporating the will helps us to understand prudence as a virtue and not just as an intellectual habit.