Knowledge Management

How Tacit nature of knowledge pose challenge in sharing and

managing knowledge in an organization? How the KM model of
Nonaka and Takeuchi help to overcome these challenges. Discuss
(in about 1500 words).

In today’s era of digitization, technology is changing significantly which

leads to change in the knowledge-based organizations, so knowledge is
paramount importance for any organization and hence become a vital asset
for them. Knowledge is the fundamental asset for any organization through
which they can survive in the market with their competitors. Therefore, it is
very much required that organization should keep an eye and need to make
sure that they carry out evaluation of this ‘Knowledge’ on regular basis.
Tacit Knowledge is difficult to codify, document, communicate, describe,
replicate or imitate, because it is the result of human experience and human
senses. Some knowledge simply cannot be captured.
 
There are challenges/difficulties in sharing tacit knowledge. On a high level,
these can be classified as:
ARTICULATION CHALLENGES
 Tacit knowledge is a mixture of deliberations, subjective insight,
intuition & judgement
 Difficult to articulate and store
 Require extensive personal contact and mentoring

CULTURAL CHALLENGES
 Sharing not part of corporate culture
 Insecurity/Lack of trust
 Lack of absorptive capacity
In addition to above challenges, there are various difficulties which are there
and can be described as follows:
These difficulties can mainly be related to language & perception but
also to time, value, and distance.

The challenge with language lie in the fact that intangible tacit
knowledge is held in a non-verbal form. For most people
articulating/expressing something natural and obvious could be
hard and challenging. More experience and deeper knowledge
directs to higher tacitness of knowledge and that leads to greater
difficulties in articulating the knowledge.

Perceptually the characteristic of unconsciousness entails a problem

of people not being aware of the full range of their knowledge . In
contrast, formalized explicit knowledge seems to be recognized
easily in oneself but the feeling of a missing connection or the
fundamentals of intuition (perception) are harder to be identified
and viewed. This type of knowledge is so internalized that it has often
become a natural part of our behavior or way of thinking (managers).
Just as we do not have to be aware of our heart beating we do not
use/utilize ourselves in reflecting on our own tacit knowledge.

Distance also raises difficulties in today's work-life. The need for

face-to-face interaction is often perceived as a prerequisite for
dispersion of tacit knowledge. In these days when organizations tend
to disperse into more distant , virtual or global forms, face-to-face
interaction becomes more the exception than the rule. This will
be a difficulty especially in sharing tacit knowledge.

Time is another a challenging factor for sharing tacit knowledge.

Learning organizational culture or mental models occurs over
time and through active participation and interaction in the
organization. When for instance staff training is employed for
sharing organizational culture in the different restaurant (as it could be
considered as an enterprise) the trainer is not always aware of sharing
knowledge. A conscious externalization of tacit knowledge has not

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 taken place but tacit knowledge has been shared. In this case
socialization is more significant than the externalization.

Value is another field with challenges and difficulties in sharing tacit

knowledge as well as explicit knowledge. Many forms of tacit
knowledge, such as intuition and rule-of-thumb, have not been
considered valuable . Value is often associated with some form
of measurement. In today’s business world we have slowly
learned to value immeasurable things like knowledge but to value
even more elusive and intangible things like tacit knowledge is even
today extraordinary and unusual.
“Knowledge is power” is a phrase that is definitely entrenched in our
minds. Especially in the knowledge society of today knowledge has
become a valuable asset. If this knowledge is collective in an
organization this is fine but for many this refers to the power an
individual can gain by hoarding and storing knowledge for individual
use.

HOW KM MODEL (NONAKA AND TAKEUCHI) HANDLE

THE CHALLENGES OF TACIT KNOWLEDGE

Explicit and tacit knowledge are different dimensions of a unified concept of

knowledge. The explicit and tacit dimensions of knowledge coexist all the
time.
 
All knowledge has an explicit dimension that can be communicated by
conventional means, but cannot fully convey the tacit dimension of
knowledge.
 
The tacit dimension of knowledge is ineffable. It cannot be converted into
explicit knowledge. In order to share it, it has to be transferred or evoked in
other ways in its tacit form.
 
Knowledge Management has problematised individual tacit knowledge and
social tacit knowledge aiming to offer ways in which they can be captured or

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‘converted’ into explicit knowledge. In this regard, Knowledge Management
offers a number of perspectives, which provide complementary and at times
competing insights.
However, the most influential perspective in this field is Nonaka and
Takeuchi’ knowledge conversion theory.
 
It offers a dynamic view of knowledge based on the main assumption that
tacit and explicit knowledge can convert into each other. As part of this
theory, the SECI model is developed with its four stages of knowledge
conversion:

Socialisation- tacit to tacit

Externalisation- tacit to explicit
Combination- explicit to explicit
Internalisation- explicit to tacit

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According to this model:

 Socialisation: is the process by which new tacit knowledge is created

through shared experiences. It usually takes place in apprenticeships or
through interaction with others , sharing experiences through observation,
imitation, and practice.
Ex: brainstorming , “Knowledge Days” or “Knowledge Cafés”,
Apprenticeship or Mentoring, etc

 Through Externalisation: tacit knowledge is articulated providing a

base for new knowledge. This is deemed as a particularly difficult and
often particularly important conversion mechanism. Tacit knowledge is
codified into documents, manuals, etc. so that it can spread more easily
through the organization. Since tacit knowledge can be virtually
impossible to codify, the extent of this knowledge conversion mechanism
is debatable. The use of metaphor is cited as an important externalization
mechanism . “Concept creation in new product development is an
example of this conversion process”.

 Through Combination processes explicit knowledge is converted into

more complex sets of explicit knowledge .

 The final process, Internalisation, “is closely related to learning by

doing” In a broad sense, it can include reading, creating (which could
include the use of simulations), and reflection. People have different
interpretations of the same information . These processes could take place
simultaneously.

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This model explains how knowledge can be managed in a rather neat and
orderly fashion, which may appear oversimplified. To explain their model of
knowledge conversion further, they mentioned that knowledge is created in
the spiral that goes through two seemingly antithetical concepts, such as
order and chaos, micro and macro (individual and environment), part and
whole, mind and body, tacit and explicit, self and other, deduction and
induction, creating and control (Nonaka et al, 2000: 43). This statement
acknowledges that knowledge has a complex nature that includes antithetical
concepts, which can be transcended and synthesized through dialectical
thinking offered with their model. Therefore, if one understands the model
not as a single spiral, but as a multitude of spirals at micro and macro level,
the model offers some interesting opportunities.

Based on the SECI model’s main assumption that knowledge is first

created at individual/micro level, which then progresses through
interactions to the collective or organizational macro level.
Many of the traditional methods of knowledge diffusion like manuals and
lectures are unsuitable for tacit knowledge. Different methods like
apprenticeship, direct interaction, networking and action learning that
include face-to-face social interaction and practical experiences are more
suitable for supporting diffusion of tacit knowledge. Theoretically the
necessity of externalization of tacit knowledge to explicit has been taken
into call, especially concerning more collective forms of tacit knowledge
such as mental maps, values and organizational culture.
This is how this model assisting in overcoming the challenges which occur
while sharing and managing the tacit knowledge.

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