How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

行銷硏究 : Marketing research

Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness

(1975). The Limits of Organization. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 543-544.

The Limits of Organization

Inevitably, reading is one of the requirements to be undergone. To improve the performance and quality, someone needs to have something new every day. It will suggest you to have more inspirations, then. However, the needs of inspirations will make you searching for some sources. Even from the other people experience, internet, and many books. Books and internet are the recommended media to help you improving your quality and performance.

The Logic and Limits of Trust

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/4006.pdf

Assessing the impact of organizational learning capability on product innovation performance: An empirical test

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study aimed at conceptualising and developing valid measurements for two key dimensions of product innovation performance‐efficacy and efficiency – in the context of firm competition.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from French biotechnology firms. Using structural equations modeling, the constructs’ measurement models were tested and the scale was validated.Findings – The results of the study indicate that the operational measures developed here satisfy the criteria for unidimensionality, reliability, and validity.Research limitations/implications – This study contributes to innovation management research by providing a set of valid and reliable operational measures. These measures are expected to help researchers in theory testing. Because of the sample features, final results should be considered with caution.Practical implications – The proposed measurement scale for product innovation performance could be implemented a...

A measurement scale for product innovation performance

Purpose – The present study sets out to propose and validate a measurement scale that aims to capture the organisational capability to learn, based on a comprehensive analysis of the facilitating factors for learning. The organisational learning capability scale consists of 14 items grouped into five dimensions: experimentation, risk taking, interaction with the external environment, dialogue, and participative decision making.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from eight Spanish ceramic tile manufacturers. The survey was addressed to shop floor workers. A total of 157 valid questionnaires were obtained, representing a response rate of 61 per cent. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the construct measurement model was tested and the scale was validated.Findings – The results of the study indicate that the operational measure developed here satisfies the criteria for unidimensionality, reliability, and validity.Research limitations/implications – Because of the sample features, final result...

Measuring organisational learning capability among the workforce

This research contributes to the entrepreneurial orientation (EO)–performance literature by offering a wider picture that includes two intermediate steps: organizational learning capability (OLC) a...

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Linking Entrepreneurial Orientation and Firm Performance: The Role of Organizational Learning Capability and Innovation Performance

Organizational learning and organizational knowledge have seen important growth in both the academic and business worlds. However, both approaches face various problems, the most striking of which is their theoretical confusion and diversity. This is due to the great number of authors and publications on the theoretical concepts, which originate in different fields, and are dealt with from different perspectives. Despite their implicit links, the two areas of literature retain a relative distance. This article sets out to improve the situation by linking the two perspectives with the aim of providing an integrative approach. Furthermore, the analysis outlines some common unresolved issues in these debates: the epistemological and ontological principles that underpin our understanding of learning, knowledge, and the relationship between them, as well as the relationship between individual and organizational learning and knowing.

Ricardo Chiva

Papers

Assessing the impact of organizational learning capability on product innovation performance: An empirical test

A measurement scale for product innovation performance

Measuring organisational learning capability among the workforce

Linking Entrepreneurial Orientation and Firm Performance: The Role of Organizational Learning Capability and Innovation Performance

Organizational Learning and Organizational Knowledge: Towards the Integration of Two Approaches