“The Knowledge in Knowledge Management”
by Fred Nickols

from:  The Knowledge Management Yearbook 2000-2001
James W. Cortada and John A. Woods (eds)

Summarized by: Carol Rodriguez
21 July 2001

 

Summary:

The primary aim of this article is to clarify terms commonly used in discussions about knowledge management and posits that if the term knowledge management is to have any credence, we must be clear about what we mean by knowledge in “knowledge management.”

Three things have generally been associated with the word “knowledge” –

  • State of knowing (to know about) – to be familiar with or to be aware of facts, methods, principles, techniques, etc.
  • The capacity for action (know how) – an understanding or grasp of facts, methods, principles and techniques sufficient to apply them in the course of making things happen; and
  • Body of knowledge -- the codified, captured (in the form of books, papers, formulas procedure manuals, computer code, etc.) and accumulated facts, methods, principles and techniques

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Tom Davenport and Laurence Prusak’s working definition of knowledge incorporates information, accommodates the notion that knowledge is a state of being and at the same time accommodates the view that knowledge exists apart from the knower. It also accommodates the notion of knowledge as the capacity for action. Their definition –

Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experiences, values, contextual information that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents and repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices and norms.

This definition brings out the concepts of explicit, implicit and tacit knowledge.

  • Explicit knowledge – are those which have been articulated and captured in various forms – text, tables, diagrams, formulas, product specifications, etc.
  • Tacit knowledge – are those that cannot be articulated, and where “the knowing is in the doing”
  • Implicit knowledge – this is knowledge that can be articulated but isn’t. Its existence is implied by or inferred from observable behavior or performance.

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Other cognitive psychologists define knowledge as declarative and procedural.
  • Declarative knowledge – consists of descriptions of facts and things or of methods and procedures; all declarative knowledge is explicit, which can be and has been articulated.
  • Procedural knowledge – (two different views on how this is defined has been offered):
    • knowledge that manifests itself in the doing of something, and as such is reflected in motor or manuals skills, and in cognitive or mental skills;
    • knowledge about how to do something – this view accepts a description of the steps of a task or procedure as procedural knowledge.
What is the significance of knowing these concepts?

If knowledge management is to have any meaning and credence at all, we must say what we mean by knowledge in all its variations and permutations, and we must also do it in ways that are free of conflicts and overlaps.

Important issues of knowledge transfer and knowledge creation (Nonaka, I., The Knowledge Creating Companies, Harvard Business Review):

    1. Tacit to tacit – acquiring someone else’s tacit knowledge through observation, imitation and practice.

    2. Explicit to explicit – combining discrete pieces of explicit knowledge to form new explicit knowledge.

    3. Tacit to explicit – conversion of acquired tacit knowledge into specifications (although some doubts this possibility since tacit knowledge has been defined as something that cannot be articulated, thus raising the question of whether such knowledge is the tacit knowledge in its original form)

    4. Explicit to tacit – the process of internalizing explicit knowledge.
     

Aspects of knowledge capture, sharing and transfer:

Making implicit knowledge explicit – process of articulation, of making implicit knowledge explicit; process may sometimes require the assistance of someone like a performance analyst or a knowledge engineer.

Developing procedural knowledge – the acquisition of explicit declarative knowledge as the basis for skill development; usually works as follows: (1) we are presented with  a description of a way to perform a task; (2) we practice it, perhaps haltingly at first but proficiency improves with continued practice and it benefits from feedback.

Transferring tacit knowledge – key here is that while tacit knowledge cannot be articulated, it can be communicated or transferred.
 

Conclusion:

Knowledge management seeks to manage knowledge. Knowledge itself is a very slippery concept with many different variations and definitions. In the last analysis, we owe it to ourselves to do two things:

  • Become as knowledgeable as we can about the choices and issues facing us, including the nature of knowledge and knowing what it means when we use terms like “knowledge management”; and
  • Muster up as much clear thinking as we can, whether in the area of knowledge management or any area of endeavor.

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