The Impact and Possible use of the Zen Methods in Knowledge Management Marcela KatuēÆkovÆ Department of Cultural Heritage and Mediamatics, Faculty of Humanities, University of !ilina, Slovak Republic marcela.katuscakova@mediamatika.sk Abstract: The establishment and operation of Knowledge Management is influenced by Western and Eastern style of thinking. According to Japanese psychiatrist B. Kimura we recognise three dimensions of life. The first one is the dimension of enlightenment. The second dimension emphasises the lived experience as a real source of knowledge. The third dimension is the dimension of ordinary people who live predominantly in the environment of lived experience already analysed and transformed into other forms of objective intellectual knowledge from which further conclusions are derived. Here we can see clearly that while the West stresses the third (lowest) dimension of knowledge, the East focuses on the second dimension, the real lived experience as such. The management of large Japanese companies is adapted to the approach, whereas creativity and innovation is expected mainly from employees who gain their lived experiences on daily basis which encompasses the tacit knowledge. Nonaka and Takeuchi studied innovation in Japan and they also emphasize that innovation starts with the tacit knowledge we acquire through a working experiment. The Eastern track of knowledge management is heavily influenced by Zen, and we must bear in mind that it is not a religion in the strict sense of monotheism, but rather a kind of practical wisdom or philosophy. Therefore, its application is not a problem anyone, be it a Christian or an atheists, as we can see in the Silicon Valley. Companies based on constant innovation like Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. have implemented the (Zen) Buddhism methods into their corporate cultures. They do not perceive meditation as reflecting upon the transience of existence, but as a tool to improve oneself and to increase productivity, to improve the ability of concentration, the working memory and more. Both KM and Zen represent the effective levers of change. Most articles dealing with the penetration of Zen into KM address the issue of tacit knowledge, knowledge transfer, CoP, informal learning and the like. We believe that implementation of some methods of Zen in the functioning of Western companies may improve especially knowledge creation. Based on the information obtained we make an little experiment to test how meditation changes the ability to create innovative knowledge through Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Keywords: Zen, knowledge management, meditation, knowledge generation, creativity 1. Two tracks of knowledge management The creation and functioning of the knowledge management is influenced by the Western and Eastern style of thinking. They jointly agree that knowledge management is about knowledge necessary for the management of the business and maintaining a competitive advantage in the market (Nonaka, 1998). However, the ways to achieve this are different. Publications by Davenport and Prusak (DavenportͲPrusak, 2000; DavenportͲPrusak; 1997) are seen as the basis for the Western track of KM, while the Eastern track is based on the publication from Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), which is focused on the manner companies take advantage of knowledge to sustain a competitive advantage as well as the creation of knowledge in Japanese organisations making these organisations competitive in the long term. These two methods are often compared as Toyotism and Fordism, with the Western style management being based on the logic of maximising shortͲterm profits for shareholders and a strong faith in the effectiveness of scientific and financial techniques; where scientific method control people and decisions are mainly made topͲdown. By contrast, the Eastern type of management is about managing the Eastern collective life experience over a long period for the interests of shareholders; importance is placed on emotions and the power of the group; people improve methods of by the work itself and, therefore, decisionͲmaking often goes in the bottomͲup direction (Yoneyama, 2007). 2. The eastern perception of knowledge The Japanese approach emphasises living experience, which means tacit knowledge perceived as a certain mode of the actual creation of knowledge. It is a direct experience or understanding of events in conjunction with a given situation. This method of cognition is based on Zen Buddhism (Nonaka, 1994; NonakaͲTakeuchi, 1995). Practising Zen is a way of learning by doing (Suzuki, 2002). Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) openly refer to Zen as the basis of meaning for the sense of knowing. Zen teaches us to figure the reality and consider our ability to perceive it properly. We often prefer knowledge to direct experiment even though Zen says when we learn we kill reality Ͳ we do not get to know trees, people as they are, but we merely categorise them. Our natural intellectualisation closes the door to the actual knowledge. We discover things by categorising them, 531