Posted by Riva Gianluca on April 05, 2002 at 11:13:46:

In Reply to: Questions on theoretical underpinnings posted by Jaci on April 05, 2002 at 10:43:20:

Hi Jaci,
as many scholars have noted the distinction between tacit/personal and explicit knowledge held by Polanyi was different from what Nonaka & Takeuki have affirmed with their well-known book "The knowledge creating company". A brilliant guy just mailed me to say that they've totally misunderstood Polanyi and made trivial the concept of tacit knowledge itself. In Polanyi's opinion tacit/personal knowledge is not something which can be externalized or converted (as the Nipponic authors presumed with their theory of the "spiral"), because it holds corporal/sense dependent components which can be acquired through actual practice and performing...The example of cyckling is really well known, you can observe and try to imitate and copy, but there's no language, no externalization, no database, no other tool which can express what actually means to ride a bike, which can substitute the training of your equilibrium sense necessary to get on the bike, which can prevent you from falling off a number of times...Even when observing and copying you will develop your own learning, adapted to your own way of think, act, interacting with the world...That's why Polanyi talked about personal knowledge, it's not at all "externalizable", it can be imited but adapted to the new human body conveying it...Learning is the only way to acquire knowledge personally, through human effort and even "suffering" (often knowlege requires previous failures such as falling off the bike) what is not otherwise achievable. No shortcut for that. No thinking database or expert system.

2)The two theories you're speaking about resemble Sveiby's distinction between People-Track and It-Track, depending on the focus on people and learning rather than technology. Actually the sole distinction I can find right now is between stronger technophiles (technology is all what KM should be about) and weak technophiles (technology is important but there's a marginal role for people to be played, maybe when technoogy decides to sign off for a day sunbathing in the beach)...

Kind Regards, and thanks Thomas for your brilliant e-mail, why don't you participate in these Brint's discussion?

---

Follow Ups:

• Re: Questions on theoretical underpinnings John Tieso 11:46:08 04/05/02 (0)

---

Click Here to Post Follow Up in New Forums

    Knowledge Management Think Tank (New)

  

 Subject: 

Message: