ABSTRACT
Technical cognitive processes occur in a technical and a social division of labor. The technical division of labor—both vertical (the segmentation of the operating cycle) and horizontal (multiple workstations for the same operation in the cycle)—entails a distribution of knowledge. The situation created by the social division of labor (Poitou & Chabot, 1991) is illustrated by this statement from Bonnet, Haton, and Truong-Ngoc (1986): "The expert withholds some capital. The knowledge engineer is paid to take it away from him" (p. 165). Such is the context in which cognitive processes in the firm are to be analyzed.
