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By Georg Von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo and Ikujiro Nonaka. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 292 pages, hard cover, $27.50.
Knowledge is at the heart of innovation and competitiveness. As a result, the better we understand the process of creating knowledge, the more likely innovative behaviors can be fostered in organizations. But how is knowledge created? The authors of Enabling Knowledge Creation propose that "the creation of knowledge cannot be managed, only enabled." This means that attempts to control and administer creativity and innovation will generally fail to achieve the desired outcomes and will result in the inefficient use of already limited resources, time, and energy. In addition, tacit knowledge, not explicit knowledge, is generally the source of a firm's competitive advantage. Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is understood and applied by those possessing it, yet is not easily communicated to others. This knowledge is difficult to replicate or imitate, and often even those possessing it cannot fully describe it. The skills of a master craftsman are not learned from a text book or class, but through years of experience and apprenticeship. Enabling Knowledge Creation focuses on understanding what tacit knowledge is, how to create an environment to enable its development, and then to capture the knowledge for use throughout the organization.
This book is international in scope, reflecting the background of the authors. Georg Von Krogh is professor of management at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, while Ikujiro Nonaka and Kazuo Ichijo are on the faculty of Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. Nonaka is...