Knowledge Management

CT024-3-M

Implicit and Procedural

Knowledge

Dr Alan Eardley
 Learning Outcomes

• Describe two ‘new’ types of knowledge in

organisations:
• Explain a view or map of integrated knowledge
types
• Describe the knowledge conversion process in
practice

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Tacit and explicit knowledge…

Tacit Knowledge
• Tacit knowledge is knowledge that cannot easily
be articulated
Explicit Knowledge
• Explicit knowledge is knowledge that has been
articulated
What about knowledge that can be articulated (by
doing the right things) but has not been?

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Implicit Knowledge

Knowledge that can be articulated but hasn’t

is implicit knowledge:

• implied or inferred from observed

behaviour or performance
• knowledge extracted from a knowledge
worker by a business analyst or knowledge
engineer

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Implicit Knowledge

Eg. in analysing the process that the underwriters

at Lincoln Re used to assess insurance proposals,
the outcomes (i.e. ‘knowledge results’) could take
three basic forms:

1. approve the proposal

2. refuse it
3. make an alternative offer of insurance
None of the underwriters stated these as
alternatives at the start of the analysis!

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Implicit and explicit knowledge

Knowledge triggers:
  Knowledge - Business intelligence
Asset - Environmental scanning
- Opportunity frameworks

No Yes
Has it been Can it be
articulated? articulated?
Implicit
Focus on
knowledge
process
Yes Not easily
Focus on
Explicit Knowledge assets Tacit Focus on organisational issues
Knowledge Management Introduction
 Declarative and Procedural
Knowledge

‘Explicit’, ‘tacit’ and ‘implicit’ knowledge are not the

only ones in use in knowledge management:

Some cognitive psychologists also sort knowledge

Into two further categories:
• Declarative knowledge
• Procedural knowledge

Knowledge Management Introduction

 ‘Describing’ vs. ‘doing’

Facts and
Motor skills
‘things’

Declarative Procedural
‘Describing things’ ‘Doing things’
knowledge knowledge

Tasks and
Mental skills
methods

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Declarative Knowledge

• common with explicit knowledge

• can be made explicit - it is knowledge that can be
articulated easily
• consists of descriptions of facts and things or of
methods and procedures
example
• the cut off date for accepting applications.
• declarative knowledge and explicit
knowledge may be regarded as the same

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Procedural Knowledge

knowledge that manifests itself in doing

something:
• Shown in motor or manual skills and in cognitive
or mental skills -thinking, reasoning, decision-
making, riding a bicycle etc.
• cannot easily express in words something we
obviously know or know how to do
• This is called ‘knowing-by-doing’ (Anderson
1995)

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Procedural Knowledge

Another view
how to do something
• A description of the steps of a task or procedure
• This seems to many people to be the same as
declarative knowledge except that ‘tasks or
methods’ are being described instead of ‘facts or
things’

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Resolving the difficulty…

• procedural knowledge is tacit, can’t easily articulate it

• so it can’t be made explicit
• (i.e. not articulated or captured in text, diagrams etc.)
but…
• describing a task or drawing a flowchart represent a
process, these are representations of the task – not the
task itself
• Describing what we do or how we do it yields declarative
knowledge. A representation of something is not the thing
(e.g. a map of an area is not the area itself)

Knowledge Management Introduction

 An integrated view…

Knowledge
Asset

No Yes
Has it been Can it be Implicit
articulated? articulated?

Facts and No Motor

things Yes skills
Explicit Tacit

‘Describing’ Declarative Procedural ‘Doing’

Tasks and Mental

methods Skills

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Other forms of knowledge
transfer

Making Implicit Knowledge Explicit

• a process of articulation.
• Sometimes we are able to do this on our
own
• sometimes it requires the assistance of
someone like an ‘expert’ or a knowledge
engineer.

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Developing Procedural Knowledge

Includes skill development - the acquisition of explicit, (i.e.

declarative) knowledge as the basis for skill development.
Often this works as follows:

• Presented with an instruction of how to perform a task.

• Practicing it, poorly at first but proficiency improves with
practice
• benefits from expert feedback from a teacher.
• reach the point at which our ability to perform the task is
automatic
• even forget the original task descriptions

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Other forms of knowledge
transfer
Transferring Tacit Knowledge
• cannot be articulated but can be communicated
or transferred.
Polanyi (1966) uses the example of being able to
pick out face in a crowd. It is very difficult to:
• Articulate how we do it to someone who cannot
• Describe facial characteristics
• Ability to recognise face by pictures
• practicing the ability to recognize from different
angles and distances

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Finding your nose…

Karl-Erik Sveiby has an online test of tacit

knowledge:
1. Shut your eyes. Then try to touch the tip of your
nose with your index finger. At the same time,
concentrate hard on what you are doing and
where your arm is at all times.
2. do the exercise slowly. Allow a minimum of 20
seconds for it.
Did you find your nose? Yes / no
Which hand did you use? Best / other

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Finding your nose…

Now, plan how you would write an essay on

exactly how you did the exercise, describe how
you held your index finger, every movement your
arm was doing, all different angles, all the way up
to your nose. Allow 30 seconds for it.

How did you find this? Difficult/easy/don’t

know
Online at - http://www.sveiby.com/Portals/0/articles/TacitTest.htm

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Results of nose-finding…

• Did you find your nose?

0ver 90% of experimenters did – is that
surprising?
The conscious mind can process 40 bits per
second
The unconscious mind can process over 11
million bits per second

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Results of nose-finding…

• How did the essay exercise go?

48% of experimenters said it would be difficult,
7% ‘did not know’
Information is a poor vehicle for transferring tacit
knowledge
Action (i.e. practice) is better (that’s why we’ve
just done this exercise!)

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Results of nose-finding…

• Which hand did you use in the exercise?

76% of the nose finders used their best hand
If you did - you were trying to use your
unconscious mind
• An indication of creativity - did you gain new
knowledge?

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Now, do this exercise…

• Sit with your legs crossed, right over left

• Rotate your right foot clockwise
• With your left index finger, trace a spiral anti-
clockwise

Could you do it?

Do you think you would improve with practice?
What is the process here?

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Knowledge conversion 1

Nonaka & Takeuchi (Pp. 63-69) further discuss the

four modes of knowledge conversion that are
derived from the two kinds of knowledge:
• Socialisation: from tacit to tacit
Sharing experiences to create tacit knowledge,
such as shared mental models and technical
skills. This also includes observation, imitation,
and practice. However, ‘experience’ is the key,
which his why the mere ‘transfer of information’
often makes little sense to the receiver

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Knowledge conversion 1

• Internalisation: from explicit to tacit

Embodying explicit knowledge into tacit
knowledge. Closely related to ‘learning by
reading’ – as in a Literature Review,
‘training video’ or CBT

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Knowledge conversion 2

• Externalisation: from tacit to explicit

The process of articulating tacit knowledge
into explicit knowledge through metaphors,
analogies, concepts or models. Normally,
knowledge is verbalised or put into
documents or oral stories which can be
written down.

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Knowledge conversion 2

• Combination: from explicit to explicit

A process of placing concepts into a knowledge
system. Individuals exchange and combine
knowledge through media, such as documents,
meetings, and conversations. Information is
reconfigured by sorting, combining, and
categorising. Formal education and training
programs are of this type.

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Nonaka’s example of bread-making

• A product designer apprentices herself to a hotel

chef famous for the quality of his bread
• She learns how to make bread his special way,
including his unusual dough kneading technique
• The designer converts her new tacit knowledge
into a specification and design for a bread-
making machine
• A product development team uses it engineering
skills to produce the bread-making machine

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Use Nonaka and Takeuchi’s grid to
explore the conversion process…

Based on the ‘bread making’ case study…

To tacit To explicit

From tacit Socialisation Externalisation

Knowledge
Conversion
Grid
From explicit Internalisation Combination

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Conversion worksheet - Based on the
‘bread making’ case study categorise
these tasks:

• Socialisation
…………………………………………………………..
• Internalisation
…………………………………………………………..
• Externalisation
…………………………………………………………..
• Combination
…………………………………………………………..

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Criticisms of Nonaka’s model

• The knowledge conversion process (Nonaka et

al.) has been criticised as being unrealistic.
• In the bread-making case study – has the
product designer really taken on the baker’s tacit
knowledge? (i.e. Socialisation or tacit to tacit
conversion
• Or has she acquired her own tacit knowledge by
practicing or copying making bread?
What do you think?

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Reading

Nickols F. W. (2000).  The knowledge in knowledge management.  In

Cortada J.W. & Woods, J.A. (Eds) The knowledge management
yearbook 2000-2001 (Pp. 12-21). Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann

Nonaka I. and Takeuchi H. (1995) The Knowledge-Creating Company :

How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation.

http://www.sveiby.com/Portals/0/articles/Polanyi.html

Knowledge Management Introduction

 Question

Explain the following with an example.

1. Implicit Knowledge
2. Declarative Knowledge
3. Procedural Knowledge

Knowledge Management Introduction