Explicit knowledge

Explicit knowledge (also expressive knowledge) is knowledge that can be readily articulated, conceptualized, codified, formalized, stored and accessed. It can be expressed in formal and systematical language and shared in the form of data, scientific formulae, specifications, manuals and such like. It is easily codifiable and thus transmittable without loss of integrity once the syntactical rules required for deciphering it are known. Most forms of explicit knowledge can be stored in certain media. Explicit knowledge is often seen as complementary to tacit knowledge.

Explicit knowledge is often seen as easier to formalize compared to tacit knowledge, but both are necessary for knowledge creation. Nonaka and Takeuchi introduce the SECI model as a way for knowledge creation. The SECI model involves four stages where explicit and tacit knowledge interact with each other in a spiral manner. The four stages are:

• Socialization, from tacit to tacit knowledge
• Externalization, from tacit to explicit knowledge
• Combination, from explicit to explicit knowledge
• Internalization, from explicit to tacit knowledge.