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

Recording of presentation introducing narrative analysis, outlining what it is, why it can be a useful approach, how to do it and where to find out more. Presentation given at methods@manchester seminar at University of Manchester on 4 March 2010.

What is Narrative Analysis

The Study of Man. By Michael Polanyi. Price, $1.75. Pp. 102. University of Chicago Press, 5750 Ellis Ave., Chicago 37, 1959. One subtitle to Polanyi's challenging and fascinating book might be The Evolution and Natural History of Error , for Polanyi is at pains to expunge what he believes to be the false notion contained in the contemporary view of science which treats it as an object and basically impersonal discipline. According to Polanyi not only is this a radical and important error, but it is harmful to the objectives of science itself. Another subtitle could be Farewell to Detachment , for in place of cold objectivity he develops the idea that science is necessarily intensely personal. It is a human endeavor and human point of view which cannot be divorced from nor uprooted out of the human matrix from which it arises and in which it works. For a good while

Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy

Symposium Review: 25th Anniversary of Moral Boundaries by Joan Tronto

The Seasons of a Man’s Life

Purpose – It is argued that whilst operational and support processes deliver performance presently, it is the managerial processes that sustain performance over time. The purpose of this research paper is to better understand what these managerial processes are and how they influence organisational performance.Design/methodology/approach – The theoretical background is reviewed covering literature on the subject of business process management, resourced‐based view (RBV), dynamic capabilities and managerial processes. A research framework leads to qualitative case study‐based research design. Data are collected from 37 organisations across Europe, classified according to their performance.Findings – Findings suggest that the five managerial processes and their constituent managerial activities, identified through the empirical research, influence performance of organisations as an interconnected managerial system rather than as individual processes and activities. Also, the execution and maturity of this m...

Managerial processes: business process that sustain performance

The establishment, extension and development of formal mentoring schemes in workplaces have been accompanied by an extensive analysis of the preconditions for successful implementation. These have tended to explore the "mechanics" of formal mentoring schemes; namely policy development, scheme design, mentor competence, and mentor training. These studies tend to be normative and prescriptive. Substantive theoretical analysis of formal mentoring has been either absent, implicit, limited, or underdeveloped.

The Usefulness of Theory: A Case Study in Evaluating Formal Mentoring Schemes

Soft skills have become a subject of increasing interest in lifelong learning. Soft skills development is intended to enable and enhance personal development, participation in learning and success in employment. The assessment of soft skill is therefore widely practised, but there is little in the way of research or evidence on how well this assessment is done. Critically reviewing soft skills assessment requires both theory development and establishing a research agenda. Theory development can draw on a number of established theories which help to explain how the cognitive, emotional and social dimensions interact to shape learner behaviour around getting feedback. These include control theory, goal theory and attribution theory. Theory development following an assimilative integration approach based on attribution theory, which combines both ‘self-regulation’ and ‘socially situated’ aspects, is suggested as the most fruitful. Three areas of research can be associated with this; researching the context, ...

Soft skills assessment: theory development and the research agenda

Increasing line manager involvement in learning and development (LD one that the trend is of minimal significance, the other that it is of much greater significance. Increasing line manager involvement in L&D at work is both part of the means of attaining, and one of the ends of, broader changes in work, organisation and HRM. The conclusion here is that there are legitimate concerns about shifting to increasing line manager involvement in L&D at work, where that prejudices the provision and use of specialist L&D at work resources. However, these concerns are outweighed by the greater concern to re‐align work, organisation and management for an era where knowledge management is predominant. The issue of line manager involvement in L&D at work will continue to be an important part of the corporate and critical review agendas.

Line manager involvement in learning and development: Small beer or big deal?

Recent research exploring a range of arguments about trends in human resource management (HRM) provides contrasting evidence in evaluating the state of HRM. Methods using either fit with “best practice” or fit with contingencies as ways of evaluating the state of HRM have been foremost. Investigating the employees “point of view” has been proposed as an alternative in some recent studies. The research reported here is based on this alternative method. It describes employees views of HRM in their organisations based on a survey of 2,632 employees in 73 companies. The findings are that employees report areas of strength in HRM that include training and development, rewards, and levels of personal motivation. Employees also rate the performance of HR staff highly across a range of services. Noticeable areas of weakness in HRM, in employees’ estimations, exist in the management of staffing levels, aspects of recruitment and retention, communication, and with levels of morale in the organisation as a whole. These findings justify a mixed but overall positive picture of the state of HRM. The problems of analysing employee views of HRM in this type of study, to address arguments with evidence, are considered in conclusion.

Stephen Gibb

Papers

Managerial processes: business process that sustain performance

The Usefulness of Theory: A Case Study in Evaluating Formal Mentoring Schemes

Soft skills assessment: theory development and the research agenda

Line manager involvement in learning and development: Small beer or big deal?

The state of human resource management: evidence from employees’ views of HRM systems and staff