PRESENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TOPIC: KNOWLEDGE CONVERSION

KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge is an information or understanding about a subject which a person has. It is the ability to assign meaning and it is a valuable information processed by the human mind. Knowledge consist of experiences, values, insightness and contextual information.

TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE
TACIT KNOWLEDGE- it refers to the knowledge that being need to act and react in its environment. It is unformalized, related to intuitions, feelings and emotions. It is intangible cannot be recorded and represents experiences, ideas, insights, values. EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE- it refers to that is or can be written down or in other words documented. It is semi- structured and represents tangible or recorded knowledge. Documents, e-mail, voice-mail, multimedia etc.

KNOWLEDGE CONVERSION/ KNOWLEDGE RENEWAL The process used to create, communicate, and apply knowledge results in the generation of new knowledge and resultant expansion of the organization's knowledge base. The most critical issue that has to addressed by any KM system or by any knowledge based application is the process of converting tacit knowledge within an organization into explicit knowledge and building of a self sustaining system that will channel this knowledge back to the knowledge workers thereby enhancing the quality, while providing a channel for dissemination of knowledge.

The creation of knowledge base that facilitates effective sharing and dissemination of knowledge are highly critical. The primary concern lies in converting the tacit knowledge present within the organizational employees and processes into an explicit form that can be stored within the organizational knowledge for highly optimized access.

According to Nonaka, organizational knowledge creation and conversion is based on two dimensions. The first dimension shows that only individuals create knowledge. The second dimension relates to the interaction between explicit and tacit knowledge. These two dimensions form the basis for defining the four processes of creation / conversion of knowledge - socialization, externalization, combination and internalization.

Knowledge Conversion Process

Effective KM requires a continuous knowledge conversion process. Four different modes of knowledge conversion have been postulated. Socialization Externalization Combination Internalization

 SOCIALIZATION this process involves the conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge through sharing of experiences, insights and ideas through formal forums like meetings, conferences, workshops and informally through various interactions amongst employees or knowledge workers. EXTERNALIZATION this process involves the conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge like a document or a report. The ideas, insights, judgments of people could be captured through discussions, both conventional and on-line, chat groups an converted into an explicit form like document, report, database facilitating its usage.

 DISSEMINATION/ CONVERSION- the process involves transfer of knowledge within an organization. The explicit knowledge e.g. textbooks, manuals, product and process documentation could form the basis for further research and generation of articles and other explicit reports which would enable the further enrichment and sharing of knowledge.

 INTERNALIZATION- this is the process of conversion of explicit knowledge back to tacit knowledge enabling the knowledge workers within an organization to put the acquired knowledge into action. The knowledge accumulated by an individual by reading or understanding an explicit knowledge source like textbook can be converted into tacit form and shared with organization.