Explicit and tacit knowledge presentations

In order to successfully understand and manage knowledge, a clear definition need to be giving. Knowledge is defined by Albert and Bradley (1997) as information combined with experience, context, interpretation and reflection. These knowledge are broadly identified as of two types:
Tacit knowledge and Explicit or codified knowledge:

Tacit Knowledge: it is a type of knowledge that is technically known to someone, it is very difficult to describe, it can be demonstrated but difficult to codify.

Tacit knowledge often refers to as personal knowledge which is stimulated by best practices, experience, wisdom that exists inside human minds, and sometimes referred to as know-how which involves acquiring and using skills and information, just not in a way that can be captured and transferred easily. However, tacit knowledge is popularly known to be acquired through conversation between people, one-to-one interaction which cannot be documented into hard copies or electronically. 

There were two group presentations to demonstrate these two types of knowledge

Group A: Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge was understood to be a knowledge that resides inside humans, it comprises best practices, wisdom and other intellectual properties which are not physically recorded. It can also be considered as the art of the mind.

This group presented a case study that demonstrated how tacit knowledge is managed. The group was able to share a knowledge tacitly derived from their own experience on how to prepare and package NASI LEMAK in Malaysia, the steps were categorically explained. As a means to further explain the relevance of the tacit knowledge, there were no any prepared document for the presentation, the student were ask to note down points (explicit) so as to be able to remember and master the steps.

The following are some of the cross sections of the events:

In the Fig. 1.0, the various ingredients that is composed Nasi Lemak are displayed which includes

1. Nasi (cooked rice with coconut)
2. Chilli stew
3. Groundnut mixed with crayfish
4. Cucumber
5. Coconut leave and 
6. Wrapping sheet (brown paper)

Fig 1.0

Fig, 2.0 consist of three group members, by the left is Hafiza Aziz ready to demonstrate how to package the Nasi Lemak while at the right hand side is Duratul-ain who was the presenter of the day. The third lady is Tika who acted as the group photographer. 

Fig. 2.0

Group B: Explicit knowledge

Explicit knowledge: Is a knowledge that can easily be codified or written down, transfer and share. It can easily be protected by the legal system.

Explicit knowledge can be refer to as:

Documents

Diagrams

Illustrations

Graphs

Manuals

Patents 

The Sign Game describe by this group best explain how tacit knowledge is externalized to become explicit knowledge.

Sign Game???

This is an example of an explicit knowledge generation where a body gesture is inpired by someone and another fellow guess and codifies the meaning. One person inspires signals by using his tactile ability (hands, head, eyes etc ) without uttering a word and others guess the meaning.

The picture below shows Sha Azizi communicating by inspiring his tactile movement while the rest of the class tries to guess the meaning.

Sha Azizi uses his hands, legs, eye, body and other necessary part of his body to describe a phenomenon while members of the class watching him guess the meaning of what he is describing. The next picture shows how this tacit knowledge encoded to explicit knowledge. 

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SECI model described a process of knowledge externalization where a tacit knowledge is exposed and converted to explicit. This is a good example of tacit to explicit knowledge. the component in the SECI that best describe this is as follows

SECI Model: Knowledge transfer model

 

SECI model was introduced by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi in 1996 to explain the process of sharing and creating knowledge and the interaction between tacit and explicit as well.

the following is a brief explanation about the relationship of the various components in the model

Socialization: is basically how tacit knowledge is usually captured by personal interaction as face-to-face communication in which tacit knowledge is transferred from an individual's mind to another.

Externalization: is what most organizations trying to achieve through KM practices which is an attamp to convert the tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge which can be stored and used by others.

Combination: is the same process as the previous one (externalization) but once the explicit knowledge is created, it will be combined with another externalized explicit knowledge that has been filed earlier. 

Internalization: happens when acquiring a tacit knowledge from an explicit materials which becomes a part of individual’s basic information.