Explication from the individual to a group level is illustrated by individuals who share their skills and
experiences with others using a Computer Supported Coordinated Work-system. Fellow workers can
benefit by transforming other’s implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge possessed by themselves.
The publication on an intranet of the location of a report or memorandum, written by a team, in order to
make it available for the whole organization is an illustration of explication from the group to the
organizational level in terms of meta-knowledge.
When the availability of knowledge increases in the organization as a result of different processes of
knowledge sharing, knowledge becomes increasingly common and collective within the organization
as a whole. This process of growing commonality can be seen as externalization. Ideally, over time
individual knowledge becomes group and organizational knowledge. Turned around, processes in
which organizational knowledge becomes individual knowledge, can be seen as the process of
internalization.
In order to maximize the utilization of knowledge in organizations, knowledge should be exchanged
within and between the three levels distinguished above. When processes of externalization and
internalization flourish, knowledge is available on all levels of the organization. Following Huysman &
De Wit (2000) we speak of a learning organization when different sub-processes of sharing
knowledge, between and within different levels, are facilitated and stimulated. Empirical studies show
that especially knowledge sharing from group to organization is rare; this step appears to be a major
hurdle for organizations in their aim to accomplish organizational learning (Huysman & De Wit, 2000).
Furthermore, we assume that mainly explicit knowledge is externalized from the individual level to the
group and organizational level. When individual knowledge is externalized into organizational
knowledge, implicit individual knowledge becomes increasingly explicit group or organizational
knowledge. A reason for this is that explicit knowledge that can be expressed in a formal language, is
more easily shared, in contrast to implicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge, for instance skills, can only
be shared easily between individuals. That is why we think that as soon as organizational knowledge
is shared, explicit knowledge is involved. On the other hand, we assume that in case individual
knowledge is shared, implicit (and explicit) knowledge is more involved.