SECI, Ba and Leadership: a Unified Model of Dynamic Knowledge Creation

doi:10.1016/S0024-6301(99)00115-6

Long Range Planning

Volume 33, Issue 1, 1 February 2000, Pages 5-34

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-6301(99)00115-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

Despite the widely recognised importance of knowledge as a vital source of competitive advantage, there is little understanding of how organisations actually create and manage knowledge dynamically. Nonaka, Toyama and Konno start from the view of an organisation as an entity that creates knowledge continuously, and their goal in this article is to understand the dynamic process in which an organisation creates, maintains and exploits knowledge. They propose a model of knowledge creation consisting of three elements: (i) the SECI process, knowledge creation through the conversion of tacit and explicit knowledge; (ii) ‘ba’, the shared context for knowledge creation; and (iii) knowledge assets, the inputs, outputs and moderators of the knowledge-creating process. The knowledge creation process is a spiral that grows out of these three elements; the key to leading it is dialectical thinking. The role of top management in articulating the organisation's knowledge vision is emphasised, as is the important role of middle management (‘knowledge producers’) in energising ba. In summary, using existing knowledge assets, an organisation creates new knowledge through the SECI process that takes place in ba, where new knowledge, once created, becomes in turn the basis for a new spiral of knowledge creation.

Section snippets

What is knowledge?

In our theory of the knowledge-creating process, we adopt the traditional definition of knowledge as ‘justified true belief’. However, our focus is on the ‘justified’ rather than the ‘true’ aspect of belief. In traditional Western epistemology (the theory of knowledge), ‘truthfulness’ is the essential attribute of knowledge. It is the absolute, static and non-human view of knowledge. This view, however, fails to address the relative, dynamic and humanistic dimensions of knowledge.

Knowledge is

The knowledge-creating process

Knowledge creation is a continuous, self-transcending process through which one transcends the boundary of the old self into a new self by acquiring a new context, a new view of the world, and new knowledge. In short, it is a journey “from being to becoming”.¹² One also transcends the boundary between self and other, as knowledge is created through the interactions amongst individuals or between individuals and their environment. In knowledge creation, micro and macro interact with each other,

Leading the knowledge-creating process

In the previous section, we presented a model of the organisational knowledge-creating process consisting of three elements: SECI, ba and knowledge assets. Using its existing knowledge assets, an organisation creates new knowledge through the SECI process that takes place in ba. The knowledge created then becomes part of the knowledge assets of the organisation, which become the basis for a new spiral of knowledge creation. We now turn our attention to how such a knowledge-creating process can

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed how organisations manage the dynamic process of knowledge creation, which is characterised by dynamic interactions amongst organisational members, and between organisational members and the environment. We have proposed a new model of the knowledge-creating process to understand the dynamic nature of knowledge creation and to manage such a process effectively. Three elements, the SECI process, ba and knowledge assets, have to interact with each other

Ikujiro Nonaka is Professor and Dean of the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Graduate School of Knowledge Science, Japan. Corresponding address: Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Graduate School of Knowledge Science, Tatsunokuchi, Ishikawa 932-1292, Japan.

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Ryoko Toyama is Assistant Professor at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Graduate School of Knowledge Science, Japan.

Noboru Konno is President of Column, Inc., Tokyo, Japan.

View full text

SECI, Ba and Leadership: a Unified Model of Dynamic Knowledge Creation

Abstract

Section snippets

What is knowledge?

The knowledge-creating process

Leading the knowledge-creating process

Conclusion

European Management Journal

Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century

Knowledge and the firm: overview

Strategic Management Journal

The use of knowledge in society

The American Economic Review

The Reflective Practitioner

The Tacit Dimension

Thought and Language

The Self-organising Universe