analysis

Analysis is how knowledge is gained.

Analytical process

1. taking apart the thing to be understood or explained
2. trying to understand the behavior or properties of the parts taken separately
3. trying to assemble this understanding into an understanding of the whole, or aggregating these explanations into an explanation of the whole

Management implications --
Analysis, and analytical thinking, is characterized by phrases such as -- ""cut is down to size"" and ""divide and conquer."" An analytical management approach tends to focus on improving parts of the organization. The likely result is that the parts are optimized while the performance of the whole is either not affected or decreases. Also, thinking more knowledge is needed, vs. understanding, can lead to costly and unproductive searching for and gathering of detailed information with no beneficial, and possibly detrimental, impact.

Source: Ackoff, 1981 and Gharajedaghi, 1999