The recent book of Ikujiro Nonaka, Florian Kohlbacher, Toru Hirata, and Ryoko Toyama (Palgrave 2008) expands the theory of the knowledge creating company (Nonaka, I., and Tacheuchi, H. (1995), The Knowledge Creating Company, Oxford University Press), covering six essential building blocks of knowledge creation within companies, using in-depth case studies of companies to illustrate each block.
These blocks are:
Building Block 1: Vision and Methodology. Building Block 2: Driving Objectives and Concepts. Building Block 3: Dialogues and Knowledge Emergence. Building Block 4: Practices. Building Block 5: Ba. Building Block 6: Leadership.
Nonaka’ s concept of the knowledge creating company refers to a kind of community in which people communicate intensively and interact, transforming tacit to explicit knowledge. In Managing Flow, the authors describe a process by which any company can master tacit knowledge, . Nonaka refers to Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics to frame the distinctions between episteme (explicit / theoretical knowledge), techne (tacit / embodied knowledge), and phronesis (knowing what must be done).
The book: Palgrave – Macmillan
See also:
Stefan Gueldenberg and Holger Helting (2007), “Bridging ‘˜The Great Divide’ : Nonaka’s Synthesis of ‘˜Western’ and ‘˜Eastern’ Knowledge Concepts Reassessed“, Organization, Vol. 14, No. 1, 101-122.
Zhu, Zhichang (2006), “Nonaka meets Giddens: A critique“, Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Volume 4, Number 2, May 2006 , pp. 106-115(10)
Sally Helgesen (2008) “The Practical Wisdom of Ikujiro Nonaka‘, Business + Strategy, Winter.