2.10

Ikujiro Nonaka's Organizational Knowledge Creation: Notes and Reflection

There are two types of knowledge: tacit and explicit. Tacit knowledge is defined as the type of knowledge that is experience and context based, which includes cognitive skills such as beliefs, images, intuition and mental models as well as technical skills such as craft and knowhow. Explicit knowledge is defined as objective and rational knowledge which can be expressed in words, sentences,
numbers or formulas (context free). Its demonstration includes theoretical approaches, problem solving, manuals, and databases.

Nonaka theorizes that knowledge can be transferred as a spiral process allowing the transfer of knowledge to take place using either form of knowledge through the use of four different transfer processes.

The first transfers tacit knowledge between two different people in socialization. One form of this is simply communication or working together. Usually this process is limited to individuals.

The second involves the transfer of tacit knowledge to explicit in externalization. The transfer of tacit knowledge in this example is the articulation of one's tacit knowledge such as the usage of analogies, examples, or metaphors, or can be performed by elicitation and translation.

The third involves the transfer of explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge in the form of combination. This is the type of knowledge where many information systems are based, as much of this type of knowledge is transferred via documents, meetings, email, etc.

The fourth and final method involves the transfer of explicit to tacit knowledge via internalization. This is a largely experimental knowledge type and the ease at which a person can do this depends heavily on each person(s) involved, such as the person who has the explicit knowledge's ability to explain to the other person (the tacit recipient) and the tacit person's own ability to internalize and understand the knowledge they are receiving.

Cheers,
Eric Summers