KNOWLEDGE CONVERSION

“[…] It is very useful to draw a distinction between explicit and implicit knowledge which is unspoken and therefore cannot be easily conveyed and understood. Some abilities can be transferred through the learning process if they are cognitive abilities, i.e. knowledge related abilities. This kind of knowledge is easily transferable when you can convey it to anybody else explicitly, whereas it is unspoken when you cannot tell which rules or laws generated such knowledge. For instance, a creative advertising agent who develops a number of new and successful ideas cannot always explain why s/he is so creative. On the contrary, you can set the rules for an advertising campaign.
However, given a bigger effort, you can always transfer knowledge to someone else, even when you are dealing with “unspoken” knowledge. For example, think of a young manager who learns something by watching more experienced people at work and cooperating with them. Both examples above show that the learning process is complex and takes a long time.
In this context, knowledge generation is a process developed by single people whose personal knowledge is related to the organization goals and functioning. However, both individuals and organizations are far from being stable; on the contrary, they are always “floating” and innovation is affected by the changeableness and casualness of the relations between individuals and organization. In a way, the interaction between single people and their systems is parallel to implicit knowledge of individuals and explicit knowledge which is a prerogative of organizations. This interaction can be expressed in terms of “conversion” of implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge and vice versa.” (Vicari, 1998)

"Socialization is a process of implicit knowledge sharing which is typical of training on the job, whereas combination increases knowledge through a formal exchange of explicit knowledge between individuals. Externalization is about understanding implicit knowledge, while interiorization is about translating formal knowledge into real behaviour evident to individuals. It is a dynamic process always shifting from implicit to explicit knowledge and vice versa; in other words, it is an ever increasing recursive process.” (Vicari, 1998)