by Nico/YuwanZhang

Knowledge management (KM) is the process of creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. Nowadays Knowlege Management are playing an important role in the development of the enterprises.

1-Why Knowledge Management Are Becoming More And More Important

(a)Knowledge residing in the brainsof the individuals and becoming most powerful engine of economic performance and competitiveness in the highly saturate market .

(b)"The application of knowledge to different situations can develop new products , processes and services" The knowledge is the essential source of innovation, and continuous innovation is the key to let the company stay compectitive.

(c)With digital revolution,information are becoming one of the most important sources of competitve advantageand knowledge is one part of information , what's more, the traditional sources of competitve advantage are fading nowadays ,such as location , high-tech , natural sources and so on.

(d)Nowadays , new knowledge always begins with the individual .

(e)The flow of informationandthe generation of new knowledge in a company can decide their future.

(f)IT flatten Organizationsin postindustrial societies,authority increasingly relies on knowledgeand competence rather than formal positions

(g)The core competences of companies rely on  knowledge, experience, and sharing this across business units

2-Tacit and Explict Knowledge

When we are talking about KM, we can not ignore the two major types of knowlege,which are Tacit Knowledge and Explicit Knowledge .

(a) Tacit Knowledge embedded in the human mind through experiences ,education and job. It is relate to Knowing-how. Tacit knowledge Includes insights, intuitions. They deeply rooted in action and in an individual’s commitment to a specific context .It is difficult for individuals to articulate it because tacit knowledge has an cognitive dimension. It consists of mental models, beliefs, spirits and perspectives , it is easy for us take them for granted .

(b)Explicit knowledge  codified and digitized in books, documents, reports, memos, etc. It is relate toKnow-that.Documented information that can facilitate action.It is easy for individuals to ariticulate , identify ,share and express it because it's formal and systematic.

3-The Spiral of Knowledge ------ SECI

The generation and transformation of knowledge is critial for the development of company , so how to process the generation and transformaton is the key , then SECI model can be the key .

(a)S-Socialization: From tacit to tacit

Probably80% knowledge are living in people's brains ,so socilization isa very easy and effective manner of knowledge creationfor example ,through social interations or fact to face meeting to share experience or knowledge directly to another person. On the flip side , it can be time-comsuming and difficult to disseminate because tacit knowledge is hard to articulate and soliazation need consume time and space to operate so for a organization  this method is not effective and efficient.

(b)E-Externalization: From tacit to explicit

Through the process of externalization the tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge. In this manner, individuals are able toarticulate the knowledge into a visible form that can be disseminatedand, shared, transformed in a organization .

(c)C-Combination: From explicit to explicit

Combination is the process of recombining discrete pieces of explicit knowledge into a new form that can be organized logocially and reasonably, in this stage , there is none creation of new knowledge.

(d)I-Internalization: From explicit to tacit

When individuals get new knowledge from others , what they will do is totransfer it into individual mental models and cognitive dimension.Once internalized, new knowledge is then used byindividuals who broaden it, extend it, and reframe it within their own existing tacit knowledge. Internalization is the key to the development of individual , the more internalization to involve , the more competitive the person will be because the person is making progress continually.

In SECI model ,the externalization and internalization are critical step in the spiral of knowledgebecause they both need personal commitment which means need person to be active and enthusiastic to involve in the flow of knowledge in an organization. Additionally,the generation of knowledge through SECI can trigger a new spiral knowledge creation process so the knowledge conversion form is a spiral model not a circle model. It can be a never ending process that can upgrate continually.

4-Redundancy is the source of the generation of knowledge

To majority companies redundancy is not a good phoenomenon , because it can make things to be complicated and complex . However to the generation and transformation of knowledge , redundancy is an important source , as it can encourage the dialogues , interactions and communications . Sometimes,the new knowledge can born in a chaos.

(a)Stratigic rotation can help build redundancy

Rotation helps individuals understand the business from a multiplicity of perspectives. For example , the same information can be interpreted in many different meanings by IT department and Market Department ,since different people from different department can have a different angle to view the things.This makes organizational knowledge more fluid and easier to put into practice.

(b)Free access can help build redundancy

When people receive new knowledge, they will interpret it to fit their own situations and perspectives. Thus, what makes sense in one context can change or even lose its meaning when communicating to people in a different context ,since people are complex.When the information can open to everyone in the company can be challenge but also can be a good opportunity to build redundancy then can facilitate the generation of new knowledge .

When the redundancy occur , the contradiction will occur also, thus knowledge creation can be a synthesezing process

4-The generation of knowledge as a synthesizing process

Knowledge is not just one part of reality , It is a reality viewed from a certain angle. According to the previous part , we know that when people receive new knowledge , they can interprete in different way because people view the information based on their own consciousness. Hence,when we want to get the whole picture of reality , we need to interact with people who see the reality from different angles and sharing different contexts and opinions.

Since every individual has their own way to integrate the knowledge and own angle to view the information, so argument is inevitable . Thuswe can treat the generation of knowledge as a dialectical process ,in which various contradictions can be synthesized through different form of interactions among individuals,organization and environment.

Definitly , the systhesis does not mean compromise , do not need to find an optimal balance beween contradictions.so during the dialectical process do not need consensus but the integration of different aspects relate to knowledge. Argument is a good way for various individuals to be enthusiastically involved in to express different opinions and motivate the thinking and acting , sometimes the process can be difficult to adjust but it is benefical to the growth of flow of the knowledge and information in an organization.

4-The exploration and exploitation of knowledge need leadership with practical wisdom

Once we  treat the generation of knowledge as a dialectical process , then must need have some persons to be accountable to the whole process , this kind of person normally is the knowledge manager in a company and they probably have the leadership with practical wisdom because they are responsable to drive the exploration and exploitation of knowledge.

For the knowledge managers , it is cruicial to be able to see phenomena from various viewpoints from different persons who have various angles to view the informations so that they can interact with each other and establish a healthy dynamic relationship .What's more , I t is important to have the practical wisdom so they can distinguish the viewpoints in an umbiased way and integrate the multiple viewpoints into a new collective perspective that is meaning , deepful and useful to be used by people.

References

Ikujiro Nonaka1,2,3 and Ryoko Toyama4.(2003). Knowledge Management Research & Practice|The knowledge-creating theory revisited: knowledge creation as a synthesizing process.

Ikujiro Nonaka a , Mitsuru Kodama b , Ayano Hirose c,d, *, Florian Kohlbacher.(2014).Dynamic fractal organizations for promoting knowledge-based transformation – A new paradigm for organizational theory.Euroupean Management Journal 32,137-146.

Ikujiro Nonaka.(2007).The Knowledge-Creating Company,Harvard Business Review,162-170