This document discusses knowledge conversion through social practices. It begins by introducing organizational knowledge creation theory and defining tacit and explicit knowledge. It then explains how tacit knowledge forms the foundation of social practices and can be acquired through participation, observation, and intuition. Knowledge conversion involves transforming knowledge between tacit and explicit forms through four models: socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. Converting knowledge is important for organizations to innovate, tap into practices, acquire tacit knowledge, and represent practical circumstances. Knowledge management systems and expert judgement can also facilitate knowledge conversion.

1. How the notion of knowledge
conversion can be upheld? (Social
Practices)
Ujjwal Kumar Joshi
1

2. Agenda
 ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE CREATION
THEORY
 TACIT KNOWLEDGE
 EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE
 SOCIAL PRACTICES & KNOWLEDGE CONVERSION
 NONAKA’S FOUR MODELS OF KNOWLEDGE
CONVERSION
 CONCLUSION
2

3. ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE
CREATION THEORY
Organizational knowledge creation theory aimed at developing a
comprehensive view of knowledge that could shed light on
organizational creativity, learning, innovation and change.
Organizational knowledge creation theory defined
knowledge in three parts:
 Knowledge is justified true belief (based on interaction with the
world)
 Knowledge is the (i) actuality of skilful action (ii) potentiality of
defining situation (iii) allows human to define, prepare, shape
learn to solve problems
 Knowledge is explicit and tacit along a continuum.
3

4. TACIT KNOWLEDGE
 The concept of the Tacit Knowledge was introduced by the
Hungarian Philosopher-chemist Michael Polanyi (1891-
1976) in his book “THE TACIT DIMENSION”.
 Tacit Knowledge, even known as Informal knowledge, is
such knowledge, that are acquired by the individual
through their experiences, emotions and intuition and that
is difficult to transfer to other people.
 It is subjective and actionable.
4

5. EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE
 Explicit knowledge is the knowledge that is being
expressed by the Experts, that is the tacit knowledge, if
expressed in the written or visible form.
 It can be communicated.
 It is rational, objective and vivid.
5

6. SOCIAL PRACTICES & KNOWLEDGE
CONVERSION
 Tacit knowledge of any Individual in an Organization
helps as:
 Foundation of Social Practice
 Foundation for Creation or Innovation
 How to acquire a tacit Knowledge?
I. Participation in Social Practices under the guidance of
experienced (Wenger, 1998)
II. Practitioners’ virtuous behaviors/Expertism (Tsoukas, 2003)
III. Practitioners “intuitively” recognise when the “rules” of
performance apply and which “rules” to follow (Olin and
Wickenberg, 2001)
6

7. SOCIAL PRACTICES & KNOWLEDGE
CONVERSION
 Practitioner Diversity is a source of Innovation (Roberts,
2006)
 Practitioner may discover new ways of defining and solving
problems through knowledge conversion.
 Assembling fresh ideas inside and experiences to reflect on
events and situation.
 The conversion of knowledge from a tacit towards an
explicit form is inherently a creative act using metaphors,
analogies and images.
Example: Twisting stretch (expanding knowledge and
team)
7

8. SOCIAL PRACTICES & KNOWLEDGE
CONVERSION
 Why Knowledge Conversion is important for Organization?
 Explains how new ideas come forth in Innovation.
 How individual tap into rich practices.
 To acquire tacit knowledge.
 In some cases, Explicit Knowledge fails to represent practical
circumstances.
 Tacit knowledge is a pre-requisite for a application of Explicit
Knowledge.
 Plays a critical role in explaining organizational knowledge
creation.
8

9. Nonaka’s four models of knowledge
conversion
9

10. Nonaka’s four models of knowledge
conversion Explanation
Socialisation
(tacit to tacit) is the process of learning by sharing experiences that creates tacit
knowledge as shared mental models and professional skills (e.g. apprentices learning
process, or expert consensus achievement during medical meetings).
Externalisation
(tacit to explicit) is the process of conversion of tacit into explicit knowledge, for example
the translation of a clinical trial result into a recommendation for clinical practice.
Internalisation
(explicit to tacit) is the process of individual learning by repeatedly executing an activity
applying some type of explicit knowledge, e.g. a CPG, and absorbing the relationship
between actions and results as new personal tacit knowledge.
Combination
(explicit to explicit) is the process of enriching the available explicit knowledge to
produce new bodies of knowledge, for example combining medical and organizational
knowledge into a decision support system.
10

11. Conclusion
The conversion can also be done in
following ways:
I. Knowledge Management System
II. Expert Judgment
System Learning, 11
Source:
Usage, 25% % http://www.wectechnologies.com/img/Expertise.gif
Documents,
Story 22%
telling, 8%
Multimedia,
5%
Face to Meetings, 12
face, 17% %
Source: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images 11

12. Fig: ways for Knowledge Conversion (Social Practice)
12

13. The soft stuff is always harder
than the hard stuff.
-Roger Enrico
Vice Chairman of PepsiCo
Source: http://www.12manage.com/quotes_ki.html
13