How people learn knowledge in organizations
Through which knowledge sharing and creation culture being instilled in
learners. In this regard, knowledge conversion process between tacit and
explicit knowledge would be useful especially from the viewpoint that
according to Nonaka (1991), tacit and explicit knowledge are not separate
but mutually complementary entities.
SECI MODEL
How people learn knowledge in organizations
SECI MODEL: Socialization
• This mode enables the conversion of tacit knowledge through
interaction between individuals. One important point to note
here is that an individual can acquire tacit knowledge without
language. Apprentices work with their mentors and learn
craftsmanship not through language but by observation,
imitation and practice. In a business setting, on job training
(OJT) uses the same principle. The key to acquiring tacit
knowledge is experience. Without some form of shared
experience, it is extremely difficult for people to share each
other’ thinking process.
• The tacit knowledge is exchanged through join activities – such
as being together, spending time, living in the same
environment – rather than through written or verbal
instructions.
• In practice, socialization involves capturing knowledge through
physical proximity. The process of acquiring knowledge is
largely supported through direct interaction with people.
How people learn knowledge in organizations
SECI MODEL: Externalization
• Externalization requires the expression of tacit knowledge
and its translation into comprehensible forms that can be
understood by others. During the externalization stage, an
individual commits to the group and thus becomes one with
the group. The sum of the individuals' intentions and ideas
fuse and become integrated with the group's mental world.
• In practice, externalization is supported by two key factors.
• First, the articulation of tacit knowledge—that is, the
conversion of tacit into explicit knowledge –involves
techniques that help to express one’s ideas’ or images as
words, concepts, figurative language (such as metaphors,
analogies or narratives) and visuals. Dialogues, "listening and
contributing to the benefit of all participants," strongly support
externalization.
• The second factor involves translating the tacit knowledge of
people into readily understandable forms, into such learning
media as printed, audio/visual and digital (multimedia) via
either synchronous or asynchronous means.
How people learn knowledge in organizations
SECI MODEL: Combination
• A process of creating explicit knowledge from explicit knowledge.
Combination involves the conversion of explicit knowledge into
more complex sets of explicit knowledge. In this stage, the key
issues is the systemization of knowledge.
• Capturing and integrating new explicit knowledge is essential.
This might involve collecting and combining externalized
knowledge from internal or external sources.
• The dissemination of explicit knowledge is based on the process
of transferring this form of knowledge directly by using
presentations, meeting or conversation. Here new knowledge is
spread among the group members (i.e. COP).
• Furthermore, the editing or processing of explicit knowledge
makes it more usable (e.g. documents such as plans, report,
learning notes, procedures, rules and regulations).
• In the combination process, information-processing approach is
fully applied that is to sort, add, categorize, store and
disseminate explicit knowledge that can lead to new knowledge.
How people learn knowledge in organizations
SECI MODEL: Internalization
• The internalization stage involves the conversion of
explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge. This requires the
individual to identify the knowledge relevant for one’s self to
be embedded into the common knowledge of his/her
respective learning group. Learning by doing, training and
exercises allow the individual to access the knowledge
realm of the group.
• In practice, internalization relies on two dimensions:
• First, explicit knowledge has to be embodied in action and
practice. Thus, the process of internalizing explicit
knowledge actualizes concepts or methods about the
subjects and problems being learned.
• Second, there is a process of embodying the explicit
knowledge by using simulations or experiments to trigger
learning by doing processes.
How people learn knowledge in organizations
• Lave and Wenger (1991) suggest a process called
Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) in which
learners learn in Communities of Practice (CoPs).
• A process by which learners who are members of a COP
attempt to negotiate meanings from what they learn day
in, day out.
• It involves two sub-processes, participation and
reification that form a duality of knowledge concept.
How people learn knowledge in organizations
• LPP – negotiation of meaning via participation and
reification:
How people learn knowledge in organizations
• For Wenger (1998) participation is more than engaging
in particular activities with a selected group of
people. Learning is social participation, that is, it is a
process in which people are not only the active
participants in the practice of a community, but also one
through which they develop their own identities in
relation to that community. He describes participation
as:
– ... the social experience of living in the world in terms
of membership in social communities and active
involvement in social enterprises ... Participation ... is
not tantamount to collaboration. It can involve all
kinds of relations, conflictual as well as harmonious,
intimate as well as political, competitive as well as
cooperative. (Wenger, 1998: 55-56)
How people learn knowledge in organizations
• Having concentrated on the participation dimension to LPP,
Wenger (1998) points out that this remains undefined without
the other constituent process that makes up the negotiation of
meaning: reification - giving concrete form to something that is
abstract. He uses the concept of reification:
– ...to refer to the process of giving form to our
experience by producing objects that congeal this
experience into 'thingness' ... With the term reification
I mean to cover a wide range of processes that
include making, designing, representing, naming,
encoding and describing as well as perceiving,
interpreting, using, reusing, decoding and recasting.
(Wenger, 1998: 58-59)
• He explains that any CoP will produce artefacts such as tools,
procedures, stories and language, which reify some aspect of
its practice. However, knowledge has both softer and harder
aspects, so participation and reification are indivisible.