Interaction Dictionary

Knowledge is created and applied in myriad of situations, by many actors.

We use the terms of Nonaka’s well known SECI model. According to this model knowledge creation is a continuous and dynamic interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge. This interaction is shaped by shifts between different modes of knowledge conversion. It starts from "Socialization," when workers are interacting with each other, as well as experience. During "Externalisation" or articulation, the knowledge is made explicit, for example in drawings, models, their evaluations, etc. This is followed by the "Combination" step during which explicit knowledge is converted into more complex sets of explicit knowledge, for example in plans, reports, work instructions. The "Internalization" converts the organization’s explicit knowledge into the organization’s tacit knowledge. Then the process starts again with socialization and so on. Thus the knowledge creation happens continuously. It also happens in multiple concurrently operating teams or groups, and it involves the externalization in many forms. Knowledge can be stored in books and scientific journals.

It is important to externalize knowledge in such a way that more actors can benefit from it. Often the knowledge is intellectual property and protected by copy right.

References
[1] Nonaka, I.: The Knowledge-Creating Company, Harvard Business Review Nov-Dec (1991) 96-104
Further details and references at http://www.worx.wiki/knowledge-conversion .

takes place in a work system and its stakeholders

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