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8 MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORK AND INNOVATION

TACIT EXPLICIT

TACIT Socialization Externalization

EXPLICIT Internalization Combination

Figure 1.2 The SECI model (after Nonaka, 1994)

knowledge creation could take place: socialization (tacit/tacit); externalization
(tacit/explicit); combination (explicit/explicit) and internalization (explicit/
tacit). Because Nonaka believes that individual cognition plays an essential part
in knowledge creation, he suggests that organizational knowledge creation stems
from the individual. If we take the socialization process, for example, this rests
on individuals interacting with others and reflecting on their own and others’
experiences. This emphasis on knowledge existing only at the individual level is a
fundamental difference between Nonaka’s framework and the other frameworks
discussed later.
This is not to suggest, however, that organizations and their managers do
not have a role to play in knowledge creation. Nonaka also stressed that manag-
ers need to provide the necessary enabling context for individuals to share and
create knowledge. In his more recent elaborations of the SECI model, then,
Nonaka developed the notion of ‘ba’ – a concept originally developed by Japa-
nese philosopher Kitaro Nishida, meaning ‘a context which harbours meaning’
(Nonaka and Konno, 1998). According to Nonaka and Konno (1998), ‘ba’
(roughly translated in English as ‘place’) is ‘a shared space for emerging relation-
ships. This space can be physical (e.g. office, dispersed business space), virtual
(e.g. e-mail, teleconference), mental (e.g. shared experience, ideas, ideals), or
any combination of them’ (p. 40). Relating back to the distinction between
knowledge and information discussed earlier, knowledge is seen as embedded in
‘ba’ where it is acquired though individuals’ experiences and reflections. Infor-
mation is knowledge that is separated from ba and so able to be communicated
independently – ‘Information resides in media and networks. It is tangible. In
contrast knowledge resides in “ba”. It is intangible’ (p. 40). Nonaka and Konno
identified, in turn, four kinds of ‘ba’ that map onto the four kinds of knowledge
conversion processes:

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