Introduction
Learning at the workplace is said to be “the next big thing” [
1
], and social learning on
ICT-enabled work-communities is foreseen to become the dominant source of
education in areas where new practical knowledge emerges rapidly and has a short lifetime
[
2
]. Being competent becomes more and more a dynamic and social phenomenon,
where individual workers are the managers of their learning paths, and the
selfdetermined enhancement of their work-relevant knowledge is based on a frequent
experience exchange with colleagues and peers. But engagement in collaborative
learning and knowledge building (LKB) activities is still a big challenge for many
workplace learning designers and researchers. First, challenges arise on how to make the
individual tacit knowledge of experts explicit and useful for other workers, how to
combine it to more complex constructs that embody the organizational goals and
visions, and how to shape the action and practice in organization with this accumulated
knowledge. Second, especially in highly competitive environments motivation for an
increased knowledge sharing is an important challenge, as people might feel reluctant
to give away too much of their tacit knowledge [
3
].
One model that explains organizational knowledge management from individuals’
and organizations’ perspective is the knowledge conversion model (also called
SECImodel) from Nonaka and Takeuchi [
4
]. This model has been used to explain how to
dynamically update organizational knowledge using organization members
experiences, but it does not integrate the issues of motivation for learning and
knowledgebuilding (LKB) in the workplace.
In IntelLEO, a research project of the 7th Framework program, we aim to increase
motivation for LKB within and across organizational borders through innovative tools
and procedures [
5
]. With this aim, the research team took the approach to adapt the
model [
4
] into the projects’ “pedagogic and motivational model”.
The organizational knowledge conversion model
Nonaka and his co-researchers [
4
] were one of the pioneers in theorizing about
organizational knowledge conversion as the means for achieving adaptive and agile
companies. This knowledge management model basically describes a spiral continuum of
explicit and tacit knowledge that flows between the individual and the organizational
levels. The model covers four (SECI) phases:
- Socialization with colleagues upon implicit knowledge while working is largely
supported by physical proximity and represents the origin of trust and commitment
between individuals via apprenticeships, shared experiences and informal meetings;
- Externalization of personal implicit work knowledge for organizational purposes is
guided by organizational goals and visions and is largely supported by dialog and
collective reflection requiring shared concepts, visuals and a symbolic language, as well
as translation skills, like metaphors or analogies;
- Combination of explicit knowledge is the integration and synthesis of the useful
experiences of different individuals, and serves the purpose of updating organizational
visions and goals. By sharing tacit knowledge individuals commit and become part of
a group – a process that is largely influenced by the quality of social relations between
the group members. They combine existing explicit knowledge with new knowledge,
they systemize the new knowledge through editing and processing and they diffuse it
within the organization through presentations and meetings.
- Internalization is the process of taking the new knowledge into use in work
practices. Individuals use explicit knowledge to broaden, extend, and reframe their tacit
knowledge through continuous self-refinement. The new explicit knowledge is
embedded in action and practice through the reading of manuals, the participation in
trainings or the integration of new processes in one’s working practice.
In general the model has not been used as an organizational learning model. But
recently, Naeve, Luoma, Kravcik & Lytras [
6
] have used SECI phases for describing
learning process in the workplace, focusing on reflective practices in networking and
collaboration.
3
Motivation for LKB in the workplace
The new ways of learning in the workplace require self-motivated, proactive
learners, to whom Zimmerman B.J. [
7
] refers to as self-regulated learners, in this context.
Self-regulated learning (SRL) activities are learning activities that are under the
learner's own direction, and include additional components such as self-monitoring of
effectiveness and self-motivation [
8
]. Self-regulated learners engage in three
processes: 1. self-observation, 2. self-judgment, and 3. self-reactions, which can be
ongoing simultaneously. Self-regulated learners are said to have a higher intrinsic
motivation for learning, as observing oneself can help learners to monitor their progression
toward their goals. There is extensive evidence that encouraging learners to
systematically monitor their own performance (either through self-recording or external
recoding) positively affects their skill, acquisition, motivation, and self-efficacy [
7
].
Schunk [
9
] bring also evidence that a particularly effective strategy for reaching
longterm goals is the introduction of intermediate goals that are specific, have a plausible
difficulty level and are proximal in time. Taking a closer look at the role of motivation
in self-regulation of learning, especially recent studies take into consideration
cognitive theories of motivation, highlighting the relevance of achievement goals [
10
]. The
achievement goal theory differentiates between 1) learning oriented individuals, who
want to increase their competence and challenges are seen as an opportunity to learn;
and 2) mastery oriented individuals, who want to gain favorable judgments of their
competence and challenges are seen as a test to measure competence [
11
]. While the
former demand the comparison with other individuals (social reference norm), the
latter seek for comparison with one’s achievements in a specific situation or with
existing standards (individual reference norm) [
12
]. Empirical research brings evidence
that individuals, who are oriented towards the enhancement of competences and the
excellence within their tasks, show high intrinsic motivation, high task persistency
and high self-efficacy beliefs [
11
]. Latest research on performance goals brings
evidence that performance-oriented goals can have positive influences on intrinsic
motivation comparable to learning goals, if they target to attain positive judgments of
one’s competences [
13
]. An important contribution to this multi-goal perspective
comes from Wentzel [
14
] who differentiate between social and academic goals, where
the former reflect desires to achieve a particular social outcome. Social goals
influence achievement in their own right, as well as together with learning goals. The
pursuit of social goals, as being cooperative, compliant, and willing to share, is positively
related with successful learning [
14
]. Thus, research suggests combining orientation
towards learning goals and orientation towards social goals to increase learning and
performance. The positive influence of being embedded in a learning community on
the learners’ motivation is also confirmed by other scholars. Their research
emphasizes the importance of collaboration for successful learning [
15, 16
] and suggests that
social factors can be as powerfully motivating as intellectual ones in keeping learners
on task.
3 Adapting the knowledge conversion
motivation for learning and knowledge-building
model to
support
To integrate motivation for learning and knowledge-building into the SECI model,
IntelLEO decided to focus on two aspects, and integrate them in the original SECI
phases: 1) Support of self-regulated learners, and 2) Support of collaboration and
social and organizational embeddedness.
We understand our adapted knowledge conversion model as an approach, which
integrates and fosters:
Ad 1) Support of self-regulated achievement of learning and performance goals:
The planning of one’s competence development and self-regulated learning from
others are activities that are covered in the model’s internalization phase [
17
], while
selfregulated reflecting, documenting and bringing evidence of competence development
are supported in the externalization phase (see the dotes squares in Figure 1).
Ad2) Support of collaboration and social and organizational embbededdness:
The strengthening of the community as a source of motivation will support learning
and knowledge sharing activities in all SECI-phases. Pro-social goals, feeling of
relatedness, collaborative discussion and enhancement of learning objects, support and
tutoring for increased self-efficacy are highly relevant factors to motivate people for
non-intrinsically motivated tasks. Additional this cluster fosters the social
embeddedness of learners into the goals, norms and visions of organizations.
In the socialization phase, Nonaka and his colleagues already emphasize the
importance of networking and sharing competences with colleagues as the basis of trust
and commitment [
4, 18
]. In the externalization phase, Nonaka et al. [
4, 18
] stress the
importance of dialog when externalizing one’s tacit experiences. When individual
experiences are externalized, learners commit to a group and identify with it. In the
combination phase, activities are mainly group-based, and collaborative discussion
and enhancement of existing knowledge take place. We added the aspect of
collaboration and social embeddedness also to the internalization phase, where individuals as
well as groups identify the knowledge relevant for themselves within the organization,
negotiate and set their learning goals, internalize external regulations, monitor
progress towards achievement and learn based on the externalized experiences of others.
These two aspects (1) support of self-regulated learners +2) support of
collaboration and social/organizational embeddedness) are closely interwoven, as the
planning, performance and monitoring processes in self-regulated learning are based on
resource, and activities that were constructed and undertaken collaboratively across
organizations.
Therefore, for successful knowledge creation to occur, newly developed services and
tools have to support activities in all four phases of the adapted IntelLEO SECI
model.
4