 EXPLICIT
AND TACIT KNOWLEDGE |
Clearly
there are contradictions over the relationship between information
and knowledge in the literature: for some there is a clear
difference between the two and for others information is a
type of knowledge. However, the terms explicit
and tacit knowledge appear to be in widespread use.
When
discussing knowledge management in an organisational setting,
we discover that there are a number of issues and aspects
that we need to consider. Some theoreticians have divided
this up into the tacit versus explicit argument, but Morosini
(2000) would argue this is a false distinction. He says that
all knowledge MUST be tacit by its very nature – once outside
a person’s mind any knowledge becomes information to another
person, it is only in the mind that it can be called knowledge.
This are an echo of Polanyi's views (see link).
If
we accept the premise that all knowledge is held in people’s
mind only, then much of the arguments we have had relating
to explicit knowledge management fall away – after all they
were information management only. It therefore becomes far
harder to surface or to make explicit and therefore record
tacit knowledge.
According
to Pan and Scarbrough(1999 p362) "Tacit knowledge is
not available as a text. . . .It involves intangible factors
embedded in personal beliefs, experiences, and values."
The knowledge management literature recognises the growing
importance of knowledge-based activities as being important
for innovation, especially in knowledge intensive business
services (Miles et al 2000) and for impact on strategy
development and implementation (Saint-Onge 1996). The literature
recognises the potential value of tacit knowledge and the
general inability of organisations to gather an individual’s
experiences although there are views emerging on how attempts
at capturing tacit knowledge might be effected.
Whatever
the difficulties the argument for finding an effective means
of capturing the experiences and skills of any workforce is
compelling and it may be that there will never be more than
guidelines since any successful knowledge management system
will be essentially unique to the organisation in which it
is operated. What is essential is that whatever any organisation
takes from the literature an organisational concept of knowledge
management is developed alongside an understanding of how
it can be used within that organisation to gain competitive
advantage.
There is also a
map available for the Knowledge Management
Review section
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