Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 6K views

    Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995)

    Uploaded by

    maher76
    The document discusses a theory of organizational knowledge creation proposed by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi. The theory argues that the ability to create, share, and apply new knowledge throughout a company is key to continuous innovation. Japanese companies transformed by embracing tacit knowledge from experience over explicit knowledge from manuals. The authors also propose a 'middle-up-down' management model to better create and share knowledge.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995)

    Uploaded by

    maher76
    6K views3 pages
    The document discusses a theory of organizational knowledge creation proposed by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi. The theory argues that the ability to create, share, and apply new knowledge throughout a company is key to continuous innovation. Japanese companies transformed by embracing tacit knowledge from experience over explicit knowledge from manuals. The authors also propose a 'middle-up-down' management model to better create and share knowledge.

    Original Description:

    THE KNOWLEDGE-CREATING COMPANY

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document discusses a theory of organizational knowledge creation proposed by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi. The theory argues that the ability to create, share, and apply new knowledge throughout a company is key to continuous innovation. Japanese companies transformed by embracing tacit knowledge from experience over explicit knowledge from manuals. The authors also propose a 'middle-up-down' management model to better create and share knowledge.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    6K views3 pages

    Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995)

    Uploaded by

    maher76
    The document discusses a theory of organizational knowledge creation proposed by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi. The theory argues that the ability to create, share, and apply new knowledge throughout a company is key to continuous innovation. Japanese companies transformed by embracing tacit knowledge from experience over explicit knowledge from manuals. The authors also propose a 'middle-up-down' management model to better create and share knowledge.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    THE KNOWLEDGE-CREATING

    COMPANY
    Why are Japanese companies so successful? The authors Ikujiro
    Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi proposed an answer using their theory
    of "Organisational Knowledge Creation", i.e. the capability of a company
    as a whole to create new knowledge, disseminate it through the
    organisation and embody it in products, services and systems. This,
    according to the authors, is the key to the manner in which Japanese
    companies innovate continuously.
    To understand the success of Japanese companies, one must understand the
    environment in which these companies underwent before their transformation. As they
    were neither dominant players nor successful companies, they did not acquire the
    usual complacency and arrogance that plagued their successful counterparts such as
    IBM and General Motors. Japanese firms turned to organisational knowledge creation
    because of the crises they faced. They existed in an environment where they were
    constantly forced to abandon what was once considered successful, and where the only
    certainty was uncertainty itself. Being vulnerable, they were sensitive to the changes
    taking place around them. This, it seems, is a trait of successful companies.
    "A more fundamental need is to understand how
    organisations create new knowledge that makes (new)
    creations possible." (p50)

    Tacit vs Explicit Knowledge

    Title:

    The Knowledge Creating


    Company

    Author:

    Ikujiro Nonaka &


    Hirotaka Takeuchi

    Publisher:

    Oxford University Press

    Year:

    1995

    Reviewer:

    Vivian Kwek (Ms),


    Management Development
    Officer, Institute of Policy
    Development

    Due to the uncertainty of the future, Japanese companies had to turn to resources
    outside the organisation for new knowledge and insights. The socio-cultural and
    linguistic differences between Japan and the western world resulted in their contrasting
    approaches to knowledge creation. The western philosophy of knowledge, termed as
    explicit knowledge by the authors, had been grounded on manuals and printed
    materials, whilst the Japanese practiced a tacit form of knowledge creation.
    Tacit knowledge cannot be communicated through manuals or theories. Instead, it is
    best communicated through experience. This can be achieved by harvesting
    knowledge from the company's employees - knowledge they gained through
    experience, and knowledge linked to their mental schemas, for instance, attitudes and
    beliefs. Individuals' ideas are highly valued in Japanese companies, and these
    suggestions and improvements are judged based on their merits, and not by the
    seniority or standing of the individuals in the company. The authors argued that it is
    the use of such tacit knowledge that enabled Japanese companies to break the mould
    and produce repeated innovations for competing in the international market.
    Tacit Knowledge

    Explicit Knowledge
    (Objective)

    Knowledge of experience
    (body)

    Knowledge of rationality
    (mind)

    Simultaneous knowledge
    (here and now)

    Sequential knowledge
    (there and then)

    file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/IPD Work/BookclubNe.../Vol 3/V3N1A2 (Knowledge-Creating Company).htm (1 of 3) [12/18/2000 5:25:27 PM]

    Analog knowledge
    (practice)

    Digital knowledge (theory)

    TABLE 1: Two Types of Knowledge (p61)


    According to the authors, the knowledge of experience tends to be tacit and subjective,
    as opposed to the rationality and objectivity of explicit knowledge. Due to its
    experiential nature, the sharing of tacit knowledge between individuals is akin to an
    analog process - requiring a simultaneous processing of information. Explicit
    knowledge, on the other hand, is created sequentially, and oriented towards a
    context-free theory.
    "We can know more than we can tell."
    (p60)

    Bread Making and Dough Twisting


    The authors highlighted the research conducted by Matsushita during the development
    of its Home Bread-making machine to showcase an example of how tacit knowledge
    (in this case the skills in kneading the dough) is converted to explicit knowledge. The
    book also uses many such case studies drawn from 3M, Honda, Canon, and many
    more to illustrate their theory of organisational knowledge creation.
    llustration: Matsushita Home Bakery
    A team working to develop a bread-making machine
    understudied with a hotel that is famous for its bread in
    order to decipher the secret of dough making. After weeks
    of intensive apprenticeship, the team discovered that the
    chef not only kneaded the dough but also twisted it in the
    process of dough making. With this information, they
    successfully developed the home bakery machine. This is
    something, the authors argued, that cannot be articulated by
    the chef easily because the skill had been so ingrained in
    him that he was unaware of the fact that he was twisting the
    dough as well as kneading it.

    Middle-Up-Down
    In this book, the authors also introduced a revolutionary management system, known
    as the Middle-up-down management process. It emphasises the role of middle
    managers who partake actively in knowledge creation through a spiral conversion
    process involving both the top and front-line employees, since they serve as strategic
    knots that bind the two. This new system, they reasoned, is most suitable because it
    produces an environment conducive for tacit knowledge creation. It is an integration of
    the top-down and bottom-up management models that enables the creation and
    accumulation of knowledge at the individual level.
    Top-Down

    Bottom-up

    Middle-up-down

    file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/IPD Work/BookclubNe.../Vol 3/V3N1A2 (Knowledge-Creating Company).htm (2 of 3) [12/18/2000 5:25:27 PM]

    Who

    Agent of
    Knowledge
    creation

    What Accumulated
    knowledge
    Where Knowledge
    Storage
    How Organisation

    Top management

    Explicit

    Entrepreneurial Team (middle


    managers
    individual as
    knowledge
    Engineers)
    Tacit
    Explicit and Tacit

    Computerised
    Incarnated in
    database/manuals individuals
    Hierarchy
    Project Team
    and informal
    network
    Communication Orders/instructions Self-organising
    principle
    Tolerance for
    ambiguity

    Chaos/fluctuation
    not allowed

    Weakness

    High dependency
    on top
    management

    Organisational
    knowledge base
    Hierarchy and
    task force
    (hypertext)
    Dialogue and use
    of
    metaphor/analogy
    Chaos/fluctuation Create and
    premised
    amplify
    chaos/fluctuation
    Cost of
    Human
    coordinating
    exhaustion, cost
    individuals
    of redundancy

    TABLE 2: Three Management Models of Knowledge Creation (extract, p130)


    Universal Model
    However, having an unique innovation and improvement mechanism alone is not
    enough. The authors also looked at how organisational knowledge creation could be
    practised globally, either with international Japanese companies or Japanese
    companies working in conjunction with non-Japanese counterparts in a foreign
    country. Japan's over-emphasis on the use of figurative language and symbolism
    should be reconciled and mated with the Western methodology, which places more
    importance on analytical approaches and documentation. This would help develop a
    universal model of organisational knowledge creation that would be applicable
    throughout the world and not simply in Japanese companies.
    Conclusion
    Although the authors claimed that they were only interested in knowledge creation and
    not knowledge per se, they dedicated a chapter on the evolution of epistemology
    (theory of knowledge) from rationalism to empiricism, and from Cartesian Dualism to
    Zen Buddhism. Those who want a quick guide to the theories of knowledge by Plato,
    Aristotle, Descartes and their likes will find this chapter extremely comprehensive.
    After reading this book, one cannot help but draw parallels between Japan and
    Singapore. Singapore has been hailed as a success story by many. However, we cannot
    afford to sit on our laurels and become numb and blind to changes around us. In our
    move towards a knowledge-based economy, the creation, dissemination and
    application of knowledge will become critical to our continued success and prosperity.
    This book draws experiences from the Japanese companies and offers interesting
    insights for us.

    file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/IPD Work/BookclubNe.../Vol 3/V3N1A2 (Knowledge-Creating Company).htm (3 of 3) [12/18/2000 5:25:27 PM]

    You might also like