A informação e o conhecimento na biologia do conhecer: uma abordagem cognitiva para os estudos sobre inteligência empresarial

Abstract

The study of business intelligence under the cognitive focus of the Biology of Knowledge, from the observation of owners of small and medium size enterprises, and of their respective business environments. The Information Science has been receiving a lot of influences from the Cognitive Sciences, which have been observed, also, in the information management and business intelligence studies. In these areas, the information is considered as the element that enables the organization a thinking entity to become conscious of the changes and trends of the external business environment, in a frame of critical dependency between the organization and the environment. With regard to knowledge, the literature brings up the underlying idea that the assimilation of the experiences from the clients, competitors, partners and the remaining actors of the external environment, enable the renewing of the organizations knowledge, rejuvenating the mental structures of their managers. These ideas are based upon a transposition from the traditional theories of cognition to the organizations. Thus, the enterprises acquire, anyhow, an own life and intelligence enough to collect information from the external environment, process it and use the information necessary to their survival in the market, relegating the individuals members of the organization to play a background role in this process. In this work, the business intelligence activity was analysed under the cognitive approach of the Biology of Knowledge. In order to do this, the starting point was the testimonies of six entrepreneurs, owners of small and medium size enterprises, relative to theirs life histories as well as theirs organization histories. Thereby, it was possible to analyse the conduct of these entrepreneurs in front of theirs respective business, in addition to some key issues related to business intelligence. The data obtained through the declarations of the interviewers show that the survival of the companies, within the business environment, does not have a clear and direct correlation with the existence of conventional and systematic information management and business intelligence activities. From the viewpoint of the Biology of Knowledge, and concerning the information management and business intelligence, it was possible to observe that it should be taken into account the characteristic style of the entrepreneurs in the management of their companies, the way they do it, the relations and interrelations that they do establish, the domains they transit through, and they intrinsic predisposition to accept informational resources. It is argued in support of the idea that the Biology of Knowledge enables one to discuss the concepts of information and knowledge from an entirely new point of view. Consequently, the Biology of Knowledge could, significantly, influence the studies in the fields of information management and business intelligence and the Information Science as a whole.