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dEvEloPIng oPERATIons CAPAbIlITIEs 261

Figure 7.11 the nonaka and takeuchi knowledge model

Tacit Tacit
knowledge Dialogue knowledge
Creating tacit knowledge Codifying tacit
through shared direct knowledge to create
experience explicit knowledge

Tacit Explicit
knowledge knowledge
Field building Linking explicit knowledge

Tacit Explicit
knowledge knowledge

Building tacit knowledge Organisation and
through application of application of explicit
explicit knowledge knowledge
Explicit Learning by Explicit
knowledge doing knowledge
Source: Adapted from Nonaka I and Takeuchi (1995) The Knowledge-creating Company. New York: Oxford
University Press.

Socialisation (tacit-to-tacit knowledge)
Socialisation is the process of sharing tacit knowledge through social interactions.
Although tacit knowledge is essentially personal (it resides in people’s brains), it can
be broadened and deepened by interacting with others who have similar or comple-
mentary tacit knowledge. Increased insights and understandings can come from shar-
ing, discussing, comparing and challenging each other’s mental models. It is largely an
experiential, informal process, capturing knowledge by walking around and through
direct interaction with internal colleagues and external customers and suppliers.
And, even when the socialisation process involves structured experiences such as pre-
arranged meetings, it is primarily a process between individuals.

Externalisation (tacit-to-explicit knowledge)
Externalisation is the process of providing a visible form to tacit knowledge by convert-
ing it to explicit knowledge. Nonaka and Takeuchi define it as ‘a quintessential knowledge
creation process in that tacit knowledge becomes explicit, taking the shapes of metaphors, anal-
ogies, concepts, hypotheses, or models’. In other words, individuals are able to articulate
and reflect on their tacit knowledge and know-how and put it into a transferable form
understandable to others. This stage is not applicable only to internal individuals. It
can also include the conversion of external customers’, suppliers’ and external experts’
tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.
Combination (explicit-to-explicit knowledge)
Combination is the process of organising individual pieces of explicit knowledge into a
new form to make the knowledge more usable. This stage does not involve the creation
of new knowledge as such. Rather it consolidates and synthesises existing knowledge by

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