Processes of knowledge sharing
Processes of knowledge sharing take place between and within the various knowledge levels,
mentioned above. This process of providing and obtaining knowledge between the three levels, takes
place in two directions. Individual knowledge can become group knowledge when an individual shares
his knowledge with other group members. In the other direction, group knowledge becomes individual
knowledge when knowledge individually acquired from the group, combined with an individual stock of
knowledge, becomes new individual knowledge.
In addition to these processes of knowledge sharing between various levels, knowledge is shared
within the distinguished levels as well. An individual can share his knowledge with one other person,
which can result in new individual knowledge for the latter. Sharing knowledge between different
groups may lead to new group knowledge. On the organizational level, these processes seem less
easy to conceptualize as knowledge sharing between organizations does not take place in one
organization.
Early on we made a distinction between implicit and explicit knowledge. Applied to the processes of
knowledge sharing this distinction means that implicit or explicit knowledge can become implicit or
explicit knowledge within the same level or at another higher or lower level. Between and within two
levels we expect to find four different sub-processes of knowledge sharing. The following sub-
processes are derived from different types of knowledge conversion, developed by Nonaka &
Takeuchi (1995)
3
. Implicit knowledge possessed by individual A or group A can become implicit
knowledge for individual B and/or group B (socialization). The same goes for explicit knowledge,
becoming explicit knowledge for others (combination4
). Further we assume that implicit knowledge can
become explicit knowledge (explication), as well as explicit knowledge can become implicit knowledge within or between different levels (implication5
). Figure 3 shows the different sub-processes of
knowledge sharing.