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Knowledge Management Models 65

knowledge management. They argue that Western culture considers knower and
known as separate entities (harking back to the cognitive approach, which stresses the
importance of communicating and storing explicit knowledge). In contrast, the struc-
tural characteristics of the Japanese language and infl uences such as Zen Buddhism
led the Japanese to consider that there is a oneness of humanity and nature, body and
mind, and self and the other ( Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995 ). It follows that it may be
easier for Japanese managers to engage in the process of indwelling , a term used by
Polanyi (1966) to defi ne the involvement of the individuals with objects through self-
involvement and commitment, in order to create knowledge. In such a cultural envi-
ronment, knowledge is principally “ group knowledge, ” easily converted and mobilized
(from tacit to explicit, along the epistemological dimension) and easily transferred
and shared (from the individual to the group to the organization, in the ontological
dimension).
Nonaka and Takeuchi emphasize the necessity of integrating the two approaches,
from the cultural, epistemological, and organizational points of view, in order to
acquire new cultural and operational tools to better build knowledge-creating organi-
zations. Their construct of the “ hypertext organization ” is the formalization of the
need for an integration of the traditionally opposed Western and Japanese schools of
thought.

The Knowledge Creation Process Knowledge creation always begins with the indi-
vidual. A brilliant researcher has an insight that ultimately leads to a patent. A middle
manager has an intuition about market trends that becomes the catalyst for an impor-
tant new product concept. A shop fl oor worker draws upon years of experience to
come up with a process innovation that saves the company millions of dollars. In
each of these scenarios, an individual ’ s personal, private knowledge (predominantly
tacit in nature) is translated into valuable, public organizational knowledge. Making
personal knowledge available to others in the company is at the core of this KM model.
This type of knowledge creation process takes place continuously and it occurs at all
levels of the organization. In many cases, the creation of knowledge occurs in an
unexpected or unplanned way.
According to Takeuchi and Nonaka, there are four modes of knowledge conversion
that:
Constitute the engine of the entire knowledge-creation process. These modes are what the
individual experiences. They are also the mechanisms by which individual knowledge gets
articulated and amplifi ed into and throughout the organization. (p. 57, emphasis added)