Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Facultad de Contaduría Pública y Administración

International Business

6th Semester

Knowledge Management

L.N.I. Alma Muñoz

Evidence 1 Synthesis

Chapter 1 Concept of Knowledge

Group 6Bi

Martínez Chávez Valeria Alejandra 1844293

February 18th, 2021. Ciudad Universitaria, San Nicolás de los Garza, N.L.
Chapter 1 Concept of Knowledge
“Learning gives creativity, Creativity leads to
thinking, Thinking provides knowledge, and
Knowledge makes you great”. 
- Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Knowledge is increasingly recognized as a new strategic imperative for organizations.

The most mature paradigm is that knowledge is power. So, one has to hoard it and keep it
for oneself to keep the edge. The common attitude of most people is to hold on to their
knowledge because that makes him or her an asset to the organization. Today, knowledge is
still considered power—in fact, a huge power. This reminds me of a very popular phrase
“With great power comes great responsibility”—but understanding of what knowledge is
has changed a lot, especially from an organizational perspective. The new paradigm is that
knowledge must be shared within an organization in order for it to grow. Organizations that
share knowledge between management and employees become stronger and more
competitive. This is the core of knowledge management - knowledge sharing. In a practical
example, we can mention when a new employee joins a work team and he does not have
experience developing the tasks that are carried out in the team but there is a team member
who can train the new employee but decides not to, because he thinks that he is going to be
displaced from his position. In my point of view, this is a very negative and selfish thought,
the fact that many people refuse to share their knowledge. In the case of the new team
member. The rest of the team must think about the future of the department and that by
adding a new person who knows the operations and processes they carry out; they will
improve the department and contribute more effectively and efficiently to achieve the
objectives and organizational goals of the company they are working for.

To achieve a better understand of the knowledge management concept and its

implementation. First, we must settle a differentiation between knowledge, information and
data. Data is a number or word or letter without any context. For example, numbers like 5
or 100, without any context, are mere data. Without reference to either space or time, these
numbers or data are meaningless points in space and time. Merely collecting data is not
information. This means that if there is no relationship between pieces of data, then it is not
information. A collection of data information is an understanding of the relationship
between pieces of data or between a collection of data and other information. When one
finds a pattern relationship between data and information, the information is further
processed. The collection of data and information becomes knowledge when one is able to
recognize and understand these patterns and their implications.

There exist different types of knowledge and depending on the environment we relate, also
change its meaning. In the corporate environment, knowledge is the product of
organizational and systems thinking applied to data and information. It is the learning
outcomes that give an organization its only sustainable competitive advantage. Generally
speaking, there are two types of knowledge: tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Tacit
knowledge is what is stored in a person's brain. Explicit knowledge is knowledge contained
in documents or other forms of storage than the human brain. Both types of knowledge can
arise as a result of interaction or innovation. Tacit knowledge is personal. It exists in
people's minds. It is accumulated through learning and experience. It develops through the
process of interacting with others. Since tacit knowledge is highly individualized, the
degree and ease of sharing it depends largely on the ability and willingness of those who
share it with others.
When I was first reading this chapter and I have just finished this subtopic, an idea and an
example of tacit knowledge, came to my mind: “professors”. Throughout my student life, I
have worked with excellent teachers but also with teachers who do not know how to teach
(almost sounds redundant, I know). These teachers to whom I refer, are people who have
studied for many years not only the career but also masters, doctorates, specializations, and
even so, they do not know how to express their knowledge to others, and don’t get me
wrong, I have never discredited their effort and their professional and educational career
but if they have been assigned as teachers, it is because they should have the ability and
tools to teach and share their knowledge with other people.

Moving forward with the other type of knowledge we have that the Explicit knowledge is
encoded. It is stored in documents, databases, websites, emails, etc. It is knowledge that can
be easily made available to others and transmitted or shared in a systematic and formal
language. Explicit knowledge includes anything that can be encoded, recorded, and
archived. This includes what needs to be known, such as reports, memoranda, business
plans, drawings, patents, trademarks, client lists, methods, etc. They represent the
accumulation of organizational experience, preserved in a form that is easily accessible to
interested parties and can be reproduced as needed. Explicit knowledge and tacit
knowledge complement each other. Without tacit knowledge, it is difficult, if not
impossible, to understand explicit knowledge.

Taking up the vague example of teachers who do not teach, but now inverting it and putting
it in a more cheering situation, let's imagine a professor with multiple master's degrees and
who really has a great knowledge of the subject he has decided to focus on, and now wants
to translate his knowledge into a book that will serve other people in search of knowledge.
This is an example of tacit knowledge, since the accumulation of experience and
knowledge of the teacher will be represented in a document that can be accessed by all the
people who wish to replicate that embodied knowledge.

As already mentioned above, both tacit and explicit knowledge work together, now will
detail a little more about their interaction most in the organizational field. Personal
knowledge can become organizational knowledge through the dynamic interaction of tacit
and explicit knowledge. This dynamic process is the essence of knowledge generation in
organizations. This interaction of the two types of knowledge leads to the so-called four
modes of knowledge conversion: socialization (from individual tacit knowledge to group
tacit knowledge), externalization (from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge),
combination (from separate explicit knowledge to systemic explicit knowledge), and
internalization (from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge).
Shown next here in a more visual atractive way.

To tacit knowledge To explicit knowledge

From tacit knowledge Socialization Externalization

From explicit knowledge Internalization Combination

Starting with socialization, this is the process of creating shared tacit knowledge through
shared experiences. One person's tacit knowledge is shared and passed on to another
person, becoming part of another person's tacit knowledge. Returning to the example where
good teachers are able to share their knowledge effectively with their students and other
interested people, and do it in an appropriate way to achieve their understanding.

Externalization is a process of articulating tacit knowledge into such explicit knowledge as

concepts and/or diagrams. A good example of this would be how when a new product is
planned to be developed in a certain company, the people in charge of the creative area
have the idea in their minds of what they expect the product to be; its functions,
characteristics, specialties, etc; and they are in charge of transmitting this idea to the
production department so that they can evaluate how that product is going to be
manufactured. The creative department can use any tool that facilitates the process of
expressing this idea, for example diagrams, graphs, drawings, even spread sheets, etc.

Composition is the process of combining new and existing explicit knowledge into
systematic knowledge. For example, researchers can assemble a set of pre-existing explicit
knowledge to prepare a new set of specifications for the prototype of a new product. Or
engineers can combine available drawings and design specifications to create new process
designs or equipment.

Finally, internalization is the process of manifesting explicit knowledge as tacit

knowledge or an individual's know-how or operational knowledge. A good example is
"learning by doing". Explicit knowledge provided in the form of text, sound, or video helps
in the internalization process. Here in this mode, I feel that the learning techniques of each
individual also come into play, since not all of us learn in the same way. I believe that it is
very important to choose the correct learning strategy in order to acquire knowledge
successfully.

Knowledge is one of the most important assets of any organization. Unfortunately, very
few people make good use of this resource. Even fewer companies can optimize the use of
this important asset. In this context, it is helpful to identify two types of knowledge: core
knowledge and enabling knowledge. The type of knowledge that is critical to achieving an
organization's goals and achieving its strategy is called "core knowledge." Because core
knowledge is critical to an organization, core knowledge management must remain within
the organization. Core knowledge alone cannot fully support an organization and make it
competitive. Knowledge is required to maintain organizational effectiveness. This kind of
knowledge is called "enabling knowledge". Combined with core knowledge, these
fundamentals lead to the development of new products, processes and services.

While much organizational knowledge is available as explicit knowledge, a significant

portion of core and fundamental knowledge remains tacit. The willingness to share this tacit
knowledge is largely influenced by management's methods of identifying, acquiring and
integrating this knowledge. Organizations have a large amount of untapped core knowledge
and support expertise. The problem is that top management often doesn't know who has
what information. Few executives know where core and foundational knowledge is and
how that knowledge flows through the organization.

Conclusion

For me it is very important to understand the origin of things, their background, meaning,
uses, etc. That is why I chose this chapter to carry out the synthesis presented and the
critical opinion. I believe that to achieve a better understanding of the subject "human
capital management" there is no better way to do it than starting first by understanding what
knowledge is. Go from the simple to the complex.

In this chapter we had the opportunity to know the types of knowledge: tacit and explicit
and establish examples of each one. The examples mentioned above have not been intended
to offend anyone, it is only how I have managed to relate these concepts to my experience
and experiences. In addition to defining and exemplifying each of the types of knowledge,
we established the interaction between both types and how they are closely related to each
other. We also define the 4 modes of knowledge conversion; this helps us to know the
interaction between two types of knowledge. Finally, we discuss the challenge that
knowledge presents and how organizations have the duty to locate where or with whom
knowledge is found and achieve learning in order to meet organizational objectives.

I am sure that thanks to this assignment I will be able to achieve a better understanding of
the following topics of this human capital management course