Organizations as Rhetoric: Knowledge‐intensive Firms and the Struggle With Ambiguity

ABSTRACT This article discusses the concepts of knowledge‐intensive workers and firms. the functional view is questioned and a perspective on knowledge as institutionalized myth and rationality‐surrogate is proposed. the ambiguity of knowledge work is emphasized and it is argued that a crucial dimension of a knowledge‐intensive organization concerns the struggle with this ambiguity, which leads to efforts to refine various rhetorical strategies. Besides those stressing knowledge, science and rationality, the article points to rhetoric describing employees in knowledge‐intensive firms as possessing other personal qualities and orientations than personnel employed in bureaucracies.