Tacit knowledge

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The concept of tacit knowing comes from scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi. It is important to note that he wrote about a process (hence tacit knowing) and not a form of knowledge. However, his phrase has been taken up to name a form of knowledge that is apparently wholly or partly inexplicable.

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[edit] Definition

By definition, tacit knowledge is knowledge that people carry in their minds and is, therefore, difficult to access. Often, people are not aware of the knowledge they possess or how it can be valuable to others. Tacit knowledge is considered more valuable because it provides context for people, places, ideas, and experiences. Effective transfer of tacit knowledge generally requires extensive personal contact and trust.

Tacit knowledge is not easily shared. One of Polanyi's famous aphorisms is: "We know more than we can tell." Tacit knowledge consists often of habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves. In the field of knowledge management the concept of tacit knowledge refers to a knowledge which is only known by an individual and that is difficult to communicate to the rest of an organization. Knowledge that is easy to communicate is called explicit knowledge. The process of transforming tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge is known as codification or articulation.

[edit] Properties of tacit knowledge

The tacit aspects of knowledge are those that cannot be codified, but can only be transmitted via training or gained through personal experience. Alternatively, tacit knowledge can be understood to be knowledge that is embedded in a culture (for instance a regional culture, organizational culture or social culture) and is difficult to share with people not embedded in that culture. Tacit knowledge has been described as "know-how" (as opposed to "know-what" [facts], "know-why" [science] and "know-who" [networking]) . It involves learning and skill but not in a way that can be written down. The knowledge of how to ride a bike is an example: one cannot learn to ride a bike by reading a textbook, it takes personal experimentation and practice to gain the necessary skills.

Tacit knowledge has been found to be a crucial input to the innovation process. A society’s ability to innovate depends on its level of tacit knowledge of how to innovate. Polanyi suggested that scientific inquiry could not be reduced to facts, and that the search for new and novel research problems requires tacit knowledge about how to approach an unknown. Futher writers have suggested that most laboratory practices, practices that are vital to the successful reproduction of a scientific experiment, are tacit (Collins, 2001). Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi's book The Knowledge Creating Company (1995) brought the concept of tacit knowledge into the realm of corporate innovation. In it, they suggest that Japanese companies are more innovative because they are able to successfully collectivize individual tacit knowledge to the firm. The two researchers give the example of the first Japanese bread maker, whose development was impossible until the engineers interned themselves to one of Japan's leading bakers. During their internship, they were able to learn the tacit movements required to knead dough, and then transfer this knowledge back to the company.

An example of the problems of tacit knowledge is the Bessemer process – Bessemer sold a patent to his advanced steel making process and was sued by the purchasers who couldn't get it to work – in the end Bessemer set up his own steel company which became one of the largest in the world and changed the face of steel making.

Tacit knowledge may seem a simple idea but its implications are large and far reaching. If important knowledge is tacit, then it cannot be effectively spread through an organization. This means that useful knowledge will not be able to reach those who need it without direct, face-to-face contact. It also means that training newcomers in an organization becomes more time consuming, because they must be given time to learn on their own while doing, which reduces overall efficiency. In order to collectivize and spread tacit knowledge, organizations must invest greatly in the human capital of its members.

[edit] Failures due to lack of tacit knowledge - the so called "Law of Unintended Consequences"

Main article: Law of unintended consequences

A technical specialist acquires a defined body of formal knowledge during his education, but to be effective he must acquire tacit knowledge and this is done through a sort of apprenticeship. So a civil engineer has to first have a degree, and then several years of experience before he can become chartered. He is then deemed to be an effective practitioner.

By and large this works well, but in a significant number of cases it does not. As an example, irrigation-scheme-induced Bilharzia and Schistosomiasis, a nasty waterborne parasite, can be put down to civil engineers not being aware of the need to build in cheap anti-bilharzia measures - due to a failure of tacit knowledge and the Relevance Paradox.

The civil engineers were victims of the relevance paradox in that they thought they only needed to know about concrete, water flows etc., not how to restrict velocities, preventing the snail species which carried the disease from multiplying.

Charnock, Anne (1980). Taking Bilharzia's out of the irrigation equation. New Civil Engineer, 7 August. Bilharzia caused by poor civil engineering design due to ignorance of cause and prevention.

[edit] Knowledge management

There are many implications for organizational learning and knowledge management, including:

  • The difficulty inherent in tacit knowledge transfer is that subject matter experts and key knowledge holders may not be aware--hence, unable--to articulate, communicate and describe what they know. Thus, tacit knowledge can be a sustainable competitive advantage.
  • Tacit knowledge is embedded in group and organizational relationships, core values, assumptions and beliefs. It is hard to identify, locate, quantify, map or value.
  • Tacit knowledge is embedded in human capital. This makes it valuable as a strategic advantage over competitors in terms of innovations, trade secrets, ideas and new technologies.


[edit] References

Polanyi, Michael. "The Tacit Dimension". First published Doubleday & Co, 1966. Reprinted Peter Smith, Gloucester, Mass, 1983. Chapter 1: "Tacit Knowing".

Collins, H.M. "Tacit Knowledge, Trust and the Q of Sapphire" Social Studies of Science' p. 71-85 31(1) 2001

Nonaka, I and Takeuchi, H. The Knowledge Creating Company Oxford University Press, 1995

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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