Transfer of Tacit Knowledge

What exactly is knowledge management? “Knowledge management is defined as developing a system to improve the creation and sharing of knowledge critical for decision making” (Kreitner, 217). Tacit knowledge involves the creative minds of the production because “it is personal, intuitive, and undocumented

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

Tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge can be extremely important in our current workplace. These two are developed over time that help employees become expertise in their fields. Each one can bring value not only to the employee but the company in general. While employees cannot be directly seen, or observed learning, we can tell when people have learned by observing their behaviors. These behaviors are developed through either their experiences or what’s called tacit knowledge or classroom settings which is known as explicit knowledge. These two are not necessarily independent from one another, employees typically need some tacit knowledge to better understand explicit knowledge, while having some tacit knowledge can make learning explicit

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),

Innovation can be one of the most challenging processing in the context of work, however the creation of new knowledge is the key to success in all businesses and organisations as keeping up with the trends with only help provide good results (Crowther, D. 2002).

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

Nevertheless, other researchers propose a more detailed view of factors constituting a knowledge intensive organization. Such includes the employment of a large proportion of employees trading primarily in knowledge, through the creative generation and usage of knowledge to deliver complex and unique products and/or services(Blackler, 1995; Karreman et al., 2002). Physical manifestations of knowledge intensiveness has also been observed in firms, through increased decentralization and flatter organizational structures(Grey and Sturdy,

The concept of Tacit knowledge has been widely discussed. Management literature refers to the ideas of pioneer experts in the areas of TK. For example, Polanyi (1966) refers to TK as knowing how to do something without thinking about it such as, the knowledge required to ride a bicycle. The features of tacit knowledge are such that people often cannot explain them. It is a highly personal, subjective form of knowledge that is informal and can be implicit (Sternberg, 1997). Sternberg et al. (2000) refer to TK as experience based on the knowledge required for solving practical problems. Nonaka (1991) points out that TK has a cognitive dimension consisting of mental models.

In today's dynamic and unstable operating conditions of enterprises the ability to innovate is a key factor of survival and success of the organization. Innovations in this case are understood in a broad sense – it means not only to create and offer a new product, but rather the ability of the organization continually develop creative solutions to problems and challenges. In this regard, the role of intangible assets of the organization, especially the knowledge and experience, should be possessed by members of the organization. The concept of "learning organization” forms the approach to management, allowing the most efficient use of data

In today's dynamic and unstable operating conditions of enterprises the ability to innovate is a key factor of survival and success of the organization. Innovations in this case are understood in a broad sense – it means not only to create and offer a new product, but rather the ability of the organization continually develop creative solutions to problems and challenges. In this regard, the role of intangible assets of the organization, especially the knowledge and experience, should be possessed by members of the organization. The concept of "learning organization” forms the approach to management, allowing the most efficient use of

A simple definition of innovation is the application of new forms or ideas to elaborate different process, products, services or in a broader level changing an entire organization, aiming to increase as well to attribute value to the business. In a competitive industry this value can represent a large contribution to earn market share and competitive advantage, using the capacity to encounter opportunities and detect connections. Competitive advantage can be accomplished by innovation, approaching it in an ample concept, that includes new forms of doing things and technology (Porter, 1990). In other words, as per O’Sullivan and Dooley (2009), innovation is responsible for the company’s growth, which can be dimensioned by profit and turnover. For them, innovation consists in proposing changes for things already established and in this way creates something distinct. They highlight as well that although this is an important topic for various disciplines, the term is vaguely comprehended and often times confused with other topics, for example: creativity, design, invention and change. As already aforementioned in the definition, although there is a misunderstood relating innovation just to technology, the idea is more embracing them that, whereas include not just to develop novel technologies, but also enclose improvement of process, non-technological products and services as well the knowledge for whole Organization. The types of innovation are generally presented as

Knowledge-based view (KBV) argues that knowledge, explicit information and tacit know-how (Kogut and Zander, 1992), is an intangible strategic resource and firms can gain competitive advantages through combining and creating knowledge. However, firms not only have to possess internal resources or knowledge to enhance innovation capability, but also need to establish linkages with their partners in the network to leverage on external resources and knowledge (Zhang et al., 2010), which could be conceptualized as absorptive capacity. Absorptive capacity is constituted by a set of organizational routines and processes that enable the firm to explore, transform, and exploit knowledge from different sources (Volberda et al., 2010). For manufacturing firms, new knowledge often comes from external sources such as suppliers or customers (Zhiqiang et al., 2016).

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In a book entitled “The Necessary Nature of Future Firms,” George P. Huber provides a blue print detailing how businesses can be relevant and competitive in the future. On the topic of organization learning and knowledge acquisition, Huber (2004) list three dependencies that are crucial to an organization survival. Those dependencies are listed as 1) An organization has to be innovative by 2) acquiring new knowledge or combining current knowledge, 3) or learning new knowledge or a new way of combining current and knowledge (Huber, 2004). Schultz and Kitchen (2000) writes literature to confirm the notion that the knowledge, experience and wisdom an organization possess is directly correlated to its success in the market place.

Knowledge is power, which has already been regarded as the essential organizational source in organizational strategy (James, 2004) and knowledge can give organizations competitive advantage so as to face the fierce competition in today’s market environment(Erden et al., 2008). At the same time, utilizing the knowledge can contribute to the good organizational performance and correct decision making, which plays a significant role in organizational innovation (Laudon and Laudon, 2006). Knowledge management is an effective approach to manage the knowledge in order to facilitate the process of creating, sharing and maintaining the knowledge in the organization (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). Specifically, social media, which is based on Web 2.0, provides the effective way for organizations to create and share the knowledge and offering an innovative way for knowledge management (Kirchner et al., 2009). Thus, social media has been regarded as a tool in knowledge management that motivates individuals to share the knowledge online and this will led to innovation of organization (Ray, 2014).This paper will firstly explain organization learning and knowledge management and the relationship between the two concepts, and then use Starbucks as the case study in order to illustrate how organizations use social media in knowledge management to get innovation.