Knowledge is collection of facts, ideas, learning’s and policies, practices and a lot more. Knowledge can also be defined as agreed- upon explicit or formal facts, rules, policies and procedures.

Skills are information processing competencies that can generate explicit knowledge. Skills are learned by doing; knowledge is learned by studying or investigating.

Knowledge Management is the collection of processes that govern the creation, dissemination and utilization of knowledge.


Tacit Knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalize, making it difficult to communicate or share with others.

Explicit Knowledge can be codified and expressed in a human or formal language. It can be expressed in works and numbers and shared in the form of data, scientific formulae, specifications, manuals and the like. This kind of knowledge can be readily transmitted across individuals formally and systematically.

Socialization- Tacit knowledge to conversion takes place when tacit knowledge within one individual is shared by another through training.

Combination- Explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge conversion takes place when an individual combines discrete pieces of explicit knowledge into a new whole.

Externalization- Tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge conversion can be said to take place when an individual is able to articulate the foundations of his and her tacit knowledge.

Internalization- Explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge conversion takes place when new explicit knowledge is shared throughout the firm and other members begin to use it to broaden, extend and reframe their own tacit knowledge.