Features Of Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge – know the definition and know what facilitates the exchange of this kind of knowledge (refer to discussion in Rutland and O’Hagan article).

Knowledge is what our society is based on and it can be obtained through numerous ways, including the three ways of knowing: emotions, reasons and sense perception. ‘An emotion is an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness’. ‘Reasons are statements presented in justification or explanation of a belief or action’. Last but not least is the sense of perception: ‘the understanding gained

The writers S.D.N Cook and J.S Brown discuss Polanyi’s distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge, in tacit knowledge the individuals know but can’t say why they know, it’s really hard to formalize and communicate, and we know more than we can tell. In contrast to explicit knowledge which can be expressed with words and

In the recent past information and knowledge revolution have been witnessed in all sectors of production and have had the magnitude of the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries (Ondari-Okemwa & Smith, 2009). “Knowledge has been increasingly recognised as the most important economic resource surpassing the traditional resources of capital, labour and land” (Drucker, 1993). Tacit Knowledge creation and sharing has been attracting increasing interest, since the process of creating and managing it is relatively complex as compared to explicit knowledge. It is almost impossible to characterize tacit Knowledge without describing Knowledge and Knowledge Management (Mungai,

words through materials is not something that can be learnt explicitly, although it can be

Knowledge is possessed in one form or another by every human being capable of thinking on this earth. Knowledge could be anything from knowing the score of the baseball

Knowledge is the state of awareness or understanding gained from experience or study and learning specific information about something. This means a person has the resourcefulness to obtain and criticize

xample: Everyone is an individual; we all have strengths and weakness. An example I personally want to give in the understanding of what tacit information/ knowledge is, would be the difference between a person going from school straight to university over a person going straight to the workforce in the same field. Both people are equally as intelligent and both have the ability to do either path. The person at university is studying the subject through text and through explicit knowledge, whereas the other person is learning the job through experience, learning and observation. Both people are gaining a sound knowledge on the same subject; however one has understood the subject through reading, lectures and tutorials (explicit knowledge),

Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It can be tacit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); it can be more or less formal or systematic. Botha et al (2008) pointed out that tacit and explicit knowledge should be seen as a spectrum rather than as definitive points. Therefore, in practice, all knowledge is a mixture of tacit and explicit elements rather than being one or the other. The most important distinction within KM is between explicit and tacit knowledge. The overload of data is making knowledge management increasingly more important as it facilitates decision-making capabilities; builds learning organizations by making learning routine, and stimulates cultural change and innovation.

managers are forced to contend with the sources and origin of knowledge that workers possess as a means of enhancing companies’ capacities to improve the productivity of the knowledge worker as was done by Taylor during the heyday of manual work. Knowledge work has challenged the society to come to terms with the importance of epistemology in everyday life and to find ways of optimizing it for development. Knowledge management is proposed by Wong and Aspinwall (2004) as a strategy for increasing the productivity of the knowledge worker, but despite this there are still challenges as it relates to those who possess tacit knowledge—the major concern for companies is the loss of productivity advances when the tacit knowledge worker leaves. It has therefore become increasingly important to find out how individuals gain knowledge in the first place, and then attempt to replicate those actions that are engaged in on a daily basis, which optimizes productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. One cannot solve the epistemological problems of the contemporary workplace without reflecting on earlier conceptions about epistemology as articulated by empiricists, rationalists, pragmatists, and relativists. Empiricism argued that knowledge is derived from human sensual experiences and perceptions (Cooper, 1999, p.

Knowledge, as we all understand, can be general or specialized. We are able to gather knowledge about certain aspects of reality, branches of science, skills, traits and phenomena observable in nature. But there is another kind of “knowledge”, which is the sum of every subcategoric, specific knowledge. This knowledge is what we know about the “world” - how knowledgeable we are, how well can we navigate the seas of reality because of our knowledge about its currents, flows and hidden reefs.

Knowledge as Power: Since the emergence of knowledge based economy, one’s power has been considered in association with his/her possession of knowledge (Heizman, 2011; Mudambi&Navarra, 2004). Knowledge and power are intrinsically related. This is because knowledge creates space for the exercise of power; the exercise of power, in return, makes the control of knowledge possible (Foucault, 1980).Such relationship constitutes the knowledge-as-power argument, which implies that keeping knowledge circumscribed confers power. It is considered to be a major focus area in knowledge and learning industry in the fast growing competitive world. Knowledge Management Development and sharing helps the organization to develop group dynamics and group activity

Tacit knowledge collects all those things that we know how to do but perhaps do not know how to explain (at least symbolically). The term “tacit knowledge” comes to us courtesy of Michael Polyani, a chemical engineer turned philosopher of science. Tacit knowledge is messy, difficult to study, regarded as being of negligible epistemic worth.

Knowledge is defined to be facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education. There are two categories that fall under knowledge; personal knowledge and shared knowledge. Shared knowledge refers to what “we know because.” It can also be defined as communicated and constructed knowledge; within culture, social norms, and semiotics. Personal knowledge refers to “I know because.” An expanded definition of personal knowledge refers to personal experiences, values, and perceptions. Shared knowledge changes and evolves over time because of methods that are continuously shared. It is assembled by a group of people. Personal knowledge, on the other hand, depends crucially on the experiences of a particular individual. It is gained

Knowledge acquired and developed by a group of people rather than one individual gives rise to the idea of shared knowledge or common knowledge. Everyone contributes to shared knowledge and it does not solely depend on the contributions from one individual as there is a possibility for others to check and amend contributions made and add to the body of shared knowledge that already exists. Shared knowledge brings in the idea of ‘we know’. On the other hand, the knowledge acquired through experience, practice and personal involvement gives rise to the idea of personal or individual knowledge. Personal knowledge can also be acquired by an individual through different ways of knowing like language, reason, emotion and sense perceptions.