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Description of Tacit Knowledge in Organizations. Explanation.

Definition Tacit Knowledge. Description.

Tacit Knowledge is one of two categories of knowledge. The other is: Explicit Knowledge. While explicit knowledge is relatively easy to capture and code in organizations, this is much more difficult with tacit knowledge. As a result, most organizations have concentrated their knowledge management efforts on developing explicit knowledge.

However, tacit knowledge is generally the more important category, because it is often a source of the Core Competence and the Competitive Advantage of any corporation. As a competitive advantage, it is sustainable, because it is so hard to copy or imitate. Furthermore it is crucial for making the right business decisions and also for innovation. From a financial perspective it is an important part of the Intangible Assets of any firm.

The term "tacit knowing" was coined by scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi. It is important to note that he actually described a process (hence: tacit knowing), and not a form of knowledge.

One way of viewing tacit knowledge is to see it as the glue that is binding the explicit knowledge together. Another way to describe it, is as “know-how”, as opposed to: “know-what” (facts), or “know-why” (science). Another way is to make distinction between embodied knowledge and theoretical knowledge. On this account, knowing-how or embodied knowledge is characteristic of the expert, who acts, makes judgments, and so forth without explicitly reflecting on the principles or rules involved. The expert works without having a theory of his or her work; he or she just performs skillfully without deliberation or focused attention. Knowing-what and knowing-why, by contrast, involve consciously accessible knowledge that can be articulated and is characteristic of the person learning a skill through explicit instruction, recitation of rules, attention to his or her movements, etc. While such declarative knowledge may be needed for the acquisition of skills, the argument goes, it no longer becomes necessary for the practice of those skills once the novice becomes an expert in exercising them, and indeed it does seem to be the case that, as Polanyi argued, when we acquire a skill, we acquire a corresponding understanding that defies articulation.

Tacit Knowledge is difficult to codify, document, communicate, describe, replicate or imitate, because it is the result of human experience and human senses. The skills of a master or of a top manager cannot be learned from a textbook or even in a class, but only through years of experience and apprenticeship.

Nonaka and Takeuchi describe tacit knowledge as a non-linguistic, non-numerical form of knowledge that is highly personal and context specific and deeply rooted in individual experiences, ideas, values and emotions. Furthermore, they distinguish between technical tacit knowledge, meaning skills or concrete "know-how", and cognitive tacit knowledge, which refers to ingrained schema, beliefs, and mental models that are taken for granted.

P. Baumard (Tacit Knowledge in Organizations, 1999) has argued that knowledge in general, and tacit knowledge in particular, can be both an attribute of individuals and of groups, collectives or organizations. Although organizational tacit knowledge may be somewhat different from individual tacit knowledge. See also: Bridging Epistemologies

Hildreth and Kimble (The duality of knowledge, 2002) argue that the common approach to try to convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, and then handle it using the 'traditional' approach is flawed. Some knowledge simply cannot be captured. A method is needed which recognizes that knowledge resides in people: not in machines or documents. They argue that knowledge management is essentially about people and the earlier technology driven approaches, which failed to consider this, were bound to be limited in their success. They suggest as practical way forward to use Communities of Practice, which provide an environment for people to develop knowledge through interaction with others in an environment where knowledge is created nurtured and sustained. Other systems via which organizations try to develop or capture tacit knowledge include special portals, search engines, resident experts, and documentation systems for experts.
 

Tacit Knowledge Forum   How to Transfer Tacit Experience Globally Along with Chinese companies going global comes the need to reducing ramp-up time and cutting costs during knowledge and experience transfer. Investing in new technologies and patents is one part of the coin but how to effectively transfer the new kn...           Performance Contracting for Tertiary Institutions in Kenya - The Death Bed of Innovation While performance contracting has its place in quantifiable tasks, it leaves many questions than answers when introduced in a technical middle level institution where faculty staff should be keen to develop innovative minds of their trainees in non p...           How to Identify and Measure Tacit Knowledge? I want to evaluate the faculty tacit knowledge. Does anybody have empirical or practical knowledge about this subject? Thanks in advance....           Know How, Know What and Know When Tacit knowledge is an essential part of the "profound knowledge" as referred by Deming. It let us manage "know how" with "know what" and "know when". If your know "what" you can say that you have diagnosed the topic well, but if you also ...           Recording Tacit Knowledge A skill matrix is useful for recording employees knowledge bank on subject matters. When required, it can be like a library to seek out an "expert" on a subject within the organization. This is particularly important when an employee leaves th...           Using Tacit Knowledge for Organogram If we can measure the knowledge of an employee then we can suitably post him in the hierarchy of the organization. Since the organogram (structure and restructure) of the organization is very diffi...           Has Polanyi Been Misunderstood? Tacit vs. Explicit Knowledge “The ideal of a strictly explicit knowledge is indeed self-contradictory; deprived of their tacit coefficients, all spoken words, all formulae, all maps and graphs are strictly meaningless.” - Polyani....           Tacit Knowledge in Business Management Indeed tacit knowledge has not been given its due (what it deserves) in general management practise. In an environment where there is inadequate availability of data, one way by which managers could do better to employ tacit knowledge is man...           Tacit Knowledge -- Grapevine In an organisation, another useful source of knowledge is the "GRAPEVINE". It is defined as: the informal transmission of information, gossip, or rumor from person to person. It also means a usually unrevealed source of confidential ...           Reliance on Tacit Knowledge Westerners seem to denigrate the role of tacit knowledge in job performance without objective justification. Thus, without objective justification, I will state that the power of communities of practice arises from the commonality of understanding...           Communities of Practice I noticed an interesting article in the Harvard BR March 2010) providing some interesting thoughts on communities of practice. According to authors Richard McDermott and Douglas Archibald, communities of practice are LIKE TEAMS in that they have goal...           Indiginious Knowledge This tacit knowledge is lke to indiginious knowledge. It should be nursed with high care. Any country or organization can progress by using its tacit knowledge, especially in education systems....         Begin a new topic

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Best Practices - Tacit Knowledge Premium

Expert Tips - Tacit Knowledge Premium   How to Identify and Map Knowledge In his article “Knowledge Mapping: The Essentials for Success”, Wesley Vestal provides following six tips to identify and map knowledge: 1. Defin... Usage (application): Knowledge Identification, Knowledge Capturing, Knowledge Storage       Positive Effects of Age Diversity on Company Productivity and (Tacit) Knowledge Sharing Backes-Gellner and Veen (2013) outlined the main advantages of having a diverse workforce within a company. The following positive effects were pointe... Usage (application): Tacit Knowledge Transfer, Workforce Productivity, Incentive Management       Capturing Learned Lessons Knowledge from bad and good experiences will lead you and your organization to better future performance. You can improve your learning culture with <... Usage (application): How to Capture Organizational Learning? Best Practices       Barriers that Hinder Effective Knowledge Sharing According to Chris Collison, there are seven common barriers or syndromes that hinder effecti... Usage (application): Effective Knowledge Sharing, Pitfalls to Avoid, Knowledge Management Implementation       The N-Form Organization (Hedlund) Gunnar Hedlund of the Stockholm School of Economics introduced the notion of the N-Form corporation in 1994. He proposed that the N-Form corpor... Usage (application): Alternate KM Framework       Knowledge Management Scope Research by Deishin Lee (HBS) and Eric Van den Steen (MIT) shows that recording mediocre know-how can actually be counter-productive, since such medio... Usage (application): Knowledge Management, Level of Know-how       Knowledge Management Focal Point Research by Deishin Lee (HBS) and Eric Van den Steen (MIT) shows that information about successes is typically more useful than information about fail... Usage (application): Knowledge Management Focus

Resources - Tacit Knowledge Premium People and Latent Knowledge in Organizational Learning Knowledge management theory has struggled with the concept of knowledge creation. Since the seminal article of Nonaka in 1991, an industry has grown u... Usage (application): Knowledge Creation, Explicit Knowledge, Tacit Knowledge   Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning An extensive presentation explaining both the concept of Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning by H. Gundogan and Ç. Mutlu. Know... Usage (application): Models, Implementation, Overview, Examples   Revisiting Knowledge Management Very good paper by Madhukar Shukla gives historic overview of KM, 3 dimensions of KM and future directions of KM.... Usage (application): Integrating Knower with the Knowledge Processes   How to Improve Knowledge Sharing in Knowledge-intensive Organizations This presentation elaborates on the concept of knowledge sharing, thereby focusin on a knowledge-intensive organization context. The presentation incl... Usage (application): Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing Motivation, Knowledge Sharing Platform. Tacit Knowledge   Overview of Existing Types of Knowledge This presentation provides an overview of the different types of knowledge that exist. The presentation includes the following sections: 1. Knowl... Usage (application): Knowledge Management, Knowledge Types, Tacit, Implicit, Explicit, Declarative, Procedural Knowledge   Knowledge Management Systems Architecture This presentation is about knowledge development and management, including the following sections: 1. Overview 2. Knowledge creation 3.... Usage (application): Knowledge Management, Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Systems, Knowledge Architecture   Management Accounting of Intangible Assets This presentation provides information about intangible assets and the effective management/accounting of these assets. The presentation includes the ... Usage (application): Intangible Assets, Intellectual Capital Measurement   Leveraging Cognition for Competitive Advantage:A Knowledge-Based Strategy Process Article by Senthil K. Muthusamy and Ramaraj Palanisamy. One of the central bases for achieving competitive advantage is the organizational capability ... Usage (application): Knowledge-intensive firms   Knowledge Sharing and Organizational Learning through Communities of Practices Knowledge management in Communities of Practice (CoPs) This presentation is about organizational learning and knowledge sharing, thereby emphasiz... Usage (application): Knowledge Sharing, Organizational Learning, Communities of Practices, Special Interest Groups   Introduction and Summary of SECI Knowledge Management Is utilizing tacit (the unseen huge part of the iceberg), as well as explicit (the tip of the iceberg) knowledge a core feat... Usage (application): Initial Understanding of SECI. Start of workshop/training   Introduction and Summary of Intangible Assets (IAS38) Accounting treatment of intangible assets: - Identifiable (seperable, legal right) - Non-monetary Assets (non-cash) - Without Physical ... Usage (application): Initial Understanding of Intangible Assets, Accounting Treatment   3 Pillars of KM Three Pillars of Knowledge Management (Wiig).... Usage (application): Knowledge Management   N-Form Organization The Dynamics of Knowledge Management in an N-Form Organization.... Usage (application): Knowledge Management, Tacit Knowledge     News Tacit Knowledge         Videos Tacit Knowledge         Presentations Tacit Knowledge         More Tacit Knowledge

Compare with: SECI model  |  Bridging Epistemologies  |  Johari Window  |  Organizational Learning  |  Organizational Memory  |  Action Learning  |  Knowledge Management (Collison & Parcell)  |  Causal Ambiguity  |  Analogical Strategic Reasoning  |  Bounded Rationality  |  Synectics  |  Storytelling

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