The Nonaka-Takeuchi Model

of Knowledge Management

“In an economy where the only certainty is

uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting
competitive advantage is knowledge.”
I. Nonaka

The problem is that few managers understand how to

manage the knowledge-creating company
Focus on ‘hard’ or quantifiable knowledge
See KM as information processing machine

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 Nonaka & Takeuchi/2

 The authors studied successful Japanese companies

to try to identify how they achieved creativity and
innovation
 Found it was more than mechanistically processing
objective information
 Depending on highly subjective insights
 Slogans, metaphors, symbols
 Holistic model of knowledge creation and management
of “serendipity”

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 Nonaka & Takeuchi:
The Spiral of Knowledge
 Knowledge creation always begins with the individual
 Brilliant researcher has an insight that leads to a new patent
 Middle manager has intuition of market trends and becomes
the catalyst for an important new product concept
 Shop floor worker draws on years of experience to come up
with a process innovation that saves $$$$
 In each case, an individual’s personal knowledge is
translated into valuable organizational knowledge

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 The Basis for the Nonaka –
Takeuchi Model
 Making personal knowledge available to others in
the company is at the core of this model of KM
 It takes place continuously
 It takes place at all levels of the organization
 Individual
 Groups
 Company-wide
 Can be unexpected
 E.g. home bread-making machine innovation

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Explicit vs. Tacit Knowledge
Explicit Knowledge
Tacit Knowledge

files

80-85% 15-20%
active passive 5
 Nonaka and Takeuchi Model

Tacit Explicit

Tacit

Explicit ..

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 Nonaka & Takeuchi – the
Knowledge Spiral Model
Tacit Explicit
Socialization Externalization
Brainstorming Capturing
Tacit Coaching Sharing

Explicit Internalization:
Internalization Combination:
Understanding Systemizing
Learning Classifying
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 Tacit to Tacit Transformation

 Individual to individual(s)
 Apprenticeship  Imitation
 Mentoring
 Observation
 Practice
 Shadowing  Brainstorming
 Coaching

Apprentice may learn from the master, but the knowledge

remains tacit & is not leveraged across the organization
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 Tacit to Explicit
Transformation

 Able to articulate the knowledge, know-how

 Can be written, videotape, audiotape format
 Often need intermediary to capture this
knowledge – a journalist, a workshop…
 It now exists in a tangible form
 It can now be more easily shared with others and
leveraged throughout the organization
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 Explicit to Explicit
Transformation

 Can combine discrete pieces of tangible

knowledge into a new form
 E.g. a synthesis in the form of a report, a
comparative evaluation, a new database
 Simply a new combination of existing
knowledge – no new knowledge is created
It is easiest to convert from the same type of knowledge – tacit
to tacit and explicit to explicit – harder to change the type
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 Explicit to Tacit
Transformation

 As new knowledge is shared throughout the

organization, employees now begin to
internalize it
 They use it, broaden it, extend it and reframe
their own existing tacit knowledge base
 They learn – they do their jobs differently now

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 The KM Spiral

 First we learn something through socialization (e.g. being

apprenticed to a master)
 Next we translate this into a tangible format that can be
more easily communicated to others (externalization)
 This knowledge is then standardized using templates, coding
rules etc (new combination)
 Finally, team members enrich their own tacit knowledge
bases by adding new knowledge and skills (internalization)
 They then share this new knowledge tacitly (back to
socialization and the spiral continues)

Tacit to Explicit and Explicit to Tacit are the key steps

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 From Metaphor to Model

 Externalization (tacit to explicit) and Internalization (explicit to

tacit) both require a high degree of personal commitment
 Involves
 Mental models
 Personal beliefs and values
 Re-inventing yourself as well as the organization
 Metaphor is a good way of expressing the “inexpressible”
 Slogans, symbols
 Fables, stories, allegories
 analogies
 Models – final step, no contradictions, consistent, systematic, logical
 “two ideas in a single phrase”

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 From Chaos to Concept

 How to structure metaphors, models and analogies in an

organizational KM design
 1st principle:
 Built-in redundancy – make sure there is shared overlapping
information
 Easier to articulate
 Easier to share
 Easier to internalize
 Can be done with internal competing groups, built-in
rotational strategy and free access to company information
via single integrated database or k-base

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 From Chaos to Concept (con’t)

 Need to orient ensuring chaos created by the

inevitable discrepancies in meaning that occur
 Provide a conceptual framework that helps them make
sense of their experiences
 Conceptual umbrella for key concepts
 Domain ontology – categorization of the organization’s
knowledge base
 Standards set by the company re. strategic value of
knowledge

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 Recommended Solution

Tacit Explicit

Recommendations Recommendations
Tacit 1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

Recommendations Recommendations
Explicit 1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
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