Showing papers on "Tacit knowledge published in 1998"

The Role of Tacit Knowledge in Group Innovation

Abstract: The complexity of skills and processes needed in the development of today's products and services requires that managers attend to the role of tacit knowledge during innovation. Knowledge held in people's bodies and heads, our unarticulated knowledge, is the very basis of creativity and is not easily captured nor codified. The process of innovation is both an exploration and synthesis. This article examines ways in which managers can begin to deal with tacit knowledge; how to create an environment for a divergent process that includes a wide and healthy proliferation of ideas and a successful convergent process in which options are narrowed and a solution is decided upon and implemented.

The Associational Economy: Firms, Regions, and Innovation

Abstract: Proposes a model for economic development, the associational model, as a third way between state planning and market-driven approaches to development. The associational model correlates high capabilities in social interaction and communication, particularly in the forms of high trust, learning capacity, and networking competence, with the economic and social success of a firm. As the process of innovation becomes increasingly collaborative, this social capital can be decisive to the outcome. Because much collaboration involves tacit knowledge, that is, knowledge that has not been put into a tradeable or expressible form, successful collaboration requires personal interaction and shared experiences. Accordingly, the importance of less hierarchical corporate governance forms and local and regional milieux emerge. The consequence of these trends is the ascendancy of the region as the locus of learning and collaboration that drive innovation. Four regional case studies are presented: Baden-Wurttemberg, Emilia-Romagna, Wales, and the Basque Country. The final chapter traces the intellectual roots of the authors' study - the ideas of Schumpeter, Veblen, Marx, and Hayek - and concludes with a sketch of how an associational approach may be implemented by policy makers. (CAR)

Knowledge Management Processes and International Joint Ventures

Abstract: The management and processing of organizational knowledge are increasingly being viewed as critical to organizational success. By exploring how firms access and exploit alliance-based knowledge, the authors provide evidence to support the argument that the firm is a dynamic system of processes involving different types of knowledge. Using data from a longitudinal study of North American-based joint ventures (JVs) between North American and Japanese firms, they address three related research questions: (1) what processes do JV partners use to gain access to alliance knowledge; (2) what types of knowledge are associated with the different processes and how should that knowledge be classified; and (3) what is the relationship between organizational levels, knowledge types, and the transfer of knowledge? Although many generalizations have been drawn about the merits of knowledge-based resources and the creation of knowledge, few efforts have been made to establish systematically how firms acquire and manage new knowledge. Moreover, prior alliance research has not addressed in detail the nature of alliance knowledge and how knowledge is managed in the alliance context. The authors examine the processes used by alliance partners to transfer knowledge from an alliance context to a partner context. They identify four key processes-technology sharing, alliance-parent interaction, personnel transfers, and strategic integration-that share a conceptual underpinning and represent a knowledge connection between parent and alliance. Each of the four processes is shown to provide an avenue for managers to gain exposure to knowledge and ideas outside their traditional organizational boundaries and to create a connection for individual managers to communicate their alliance experiences to others. Although all of the knowledge management processes are potentially effective, the different processes involve different types of knowledge and different organizational levels. The primary types of knowledge associated with each process are identified and then linked with the organizational level affected by the transfer process. From those linkages, several propositions about organizational knowledge transfer and management are developed. The results suggest that although a variety of knowledge management strategies can be viable, some strategies lead to more effective knowledge transfer than others.

An Organizational Memory Approach to Information Management

Abstract: We extend and adapt a model of group memory to organizations. Using this extended model, they identify information management challenges of the next century and suggest that organizations can address these challenges by locating a large portion of their information-processing activities outside their formal boundaries, by adopting novel socialization tactics, and by focusing on the management of soft knowledge forms (e.g., tacit knowledge, judgment, and intuitive abilities). Whereas current theories increasingly equate information management with the management of information technology, we argue that information technology needs to be complemented by organization-level processes related to organizational memory.

The Legal Infrastructure of High Technology Industrial Districts: Silicon Valley, Route 128, and Covenants Not to Compete

Abstract: Recent scholarship has argued that the comparative success of the Silicon Valley high technology industrial district and failure of Route 128 outside of Boston, resulted from different patterns of inter-firm employee mobility which, in turn, led to differing patterns of industrial organization: network organization as opposed to traditional vertical integration. The cause of the different patterns of employee mobility is said to be cultural differences between California and Massachusetts. This paper offers a different causal analysis. After reviewing the new economic geography's emphasis on inter-firm knowledge transfers as an agglomeration economy, I focus on the critical role of employee mobility -- the vehicle for inter-firm knowledge transfers -- in facilitating second-stage agglomeration economies: those that allow the district to transcend its original product cycle and reinvent itself. In this account, the legal rules governing employee mobility are a causal antecedent of the construction of each district's culture. In fact, California law prohibits the most effective means of protecting trade secrets embodied in tacit knowledge -- a contractual post-employment covenant not to compete. Massachusetts law, in contrast, allows their enforcement. Consistent with the new economic geography's emphasis on path dependence, the paper shows that California's unusual legal regime dates back to the early 1870's, a serendipitous result of the historical coincidence between the codification movement in the United States and the problems confronting a new state in developing a coherent legal system. The paper concludes with a cautionary note concerning the implications of the analysis for three related subjects: the standard law and economic prescription to fully protect property rights in intellectual property; a disturbing recent line of cases concerning claims of "inevitable disclosure" that threatens to turn trade secret law into the judicial equivalent of a covenant not to compete; and the right strategy for policy analysts assessing reform of a region's legal system to encourage high technology industrial districts.

The Legal Infrastructure of High Technology Industrial Districts: Silicon Valley, Route 128, and Covenants Not to Compete

Abstract: Recent scholarship has argued that the comparative success of the Silicon Valley high technology industrial district and failure of Route 128 outside of Boston, resulted from different patterns of inter-firm employee mobility which, in turn, led to differing patterns of industrial organization: network organization as opposed to traditional vertical integration. The cause of the different patterns of employee mobility is said to be cultural differences between California and Massachusetts. This paper offers a different causal analysis. After reviewing the new economic geography's emphasis on inter-firm knowledge transfers as an agglomeration economy, I focus on the critical role of employee mobility -- the vehicle for inter-firm knowledge transfers -- in facilitating second-stage agglomeration economies: those that allow the district to transcend its original product cycle and reinvent itself. In this account, the legal rules governing employee mobility are a causal antecedent of the construction of each district's culture. In fact, California law prohibits the most effective means of protecting trade secrets embodied in tacit knowledge -- a contractual post-employment covenant not to compete. Massachusetts law, in contrast, allows their enforcement. Consistent with the new economic geography's emphasis on path dependence, the paper shows that California's unusual legal regime dates back to the early 1870's, a serendipitous result of the historical coincidence between the codification movement in the United States and the problems confronting a new state in developing a coherent legal system. The paper concludes with a cautionary note concerning the implications of the analysis for three related subjects: the standard law and economic prescription to fully protect property rights in intellectual property; a disturbing recent line of cases concerning claims of "inevitable disclosure" that threatens to turn trade secret law into the judicial equivalent of a covenant not to compete; and the right strategy for policy analysts assessing reform of a region's legal system to encourage high technology industrial districts.

Expert knowledge elicitation to improve formal and mental models

Abstract: Knowledge intensive processes are often driven and constrained by the mental models of experts acting as direct participants or managers. Descriptions of these relationships are not generally available from traditional data sources but are stored in the mental models of experts. Often the knowledge is not explicit but tacit, so it is diAcult to describe, examine, and use. Consequently, improvement of complex processes is plagued by false starts, failures, institutional and interpersonal conflict, and policy resistance. Modelers face diAculties in eliciting and representing the knowledge of experts so that useful models can be developed. We describe and illustrate an elicitation method that uses formal modeling and three description format transformations to help experts explicate their tacit knowledge. We use the method to elicit detailed process knowledge describing the development of a new semiconductor chip. The method improved model accuracy and credibility and provided tools for development team mental model improvement. * c 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Syst. Dyn. Rev. 14, 309‐340, (1998) Many public and private sector systems increasingly depend on knowledge intensive processes managed and operated by interdisciplinary teams. These systems are diAcult to manage. Often formal models such as system dynamics models are used to help managers understand the sources of diAculties and design more eAective policies. Typically, the expert knowledge of the people who actually operate the system is required to structure and parameterize a useful model. To develop a useful model that is also credible in the eyes of the managers, however, modelers must elicit from these experts information about system structure and governing policies, and then use this information to develop the model. While many methods to elicit information from experts have been developed, most assist in the early phases of modeling: problem articulation, boundary selection, identification of variables, and qualitative causal mapping. These methods are often used in conceptual modeling, that is, in modeling eAorts that stop short of the development of a formal model that can be used to test hypotheses and proposed policies. The literature is comparatively silent, however, regarding methods to elicit the information required to estimate the parameters, initial conditions, and behavior relationships that must be specified precisely in formal modeling.

Insider / Outsider: Epistemological Privilege and Mothering Work

Abstract: As researchers, we cannot be outside society and thus activities such as "science," or "objectivity" are striated with procedures for minimizing or celebrating the presence of the researcher in the research product. Our recognition of the situated character of scientific knowledge is the context in which questions about the researchers relation to the group she studies have arisen. The paper begins with a review of the Insider/Outsider debate which circles around the researcher's relation to those she studies. Where the researcher enters the research site as an Insider - someone whose biography (gender, race, class, sexual orientation and so on) gives her a lived familiarity with the group being researched - that tacit knowledge informs her research producing a different knowledge than that available to the Outsider - a researcher who does not have an intimate knowledge of the group being researched prior to their entry into the group. This paper describes the research issues that arise and the various strategies researchers have used to manage them. The argument then shifts to query the social boundaries implicit in the construction of research Insiders and Outsiders. Reflecting on research that explored mothering for schooling, the article shows that researchers are rarely Insiders or Outsiders. Rather, research is constructed in a relationship with many Others. The interaction of individual biography and social location shape the research relation in complex ways which undercut the common-sense translation of historical familiarity into epistemological privilege.

Knowledge Management and Innovation at 3M

Abstract: 3M’s objective is to become the most innovative company in the world. 3M employs a wide range of Knowledge Management systems, but the appropriate environment has to be in place before people will be motivated to input and access such systems. 3M concentrates on the “tacit to tacit” area in the belief that if this is functioning well, other aspects of Knowledge Management will fall more readily into place. The willingness to share knowledge between individuals is directly affected by the culture within a company.

Knowledge Research Issues

Abstract: If the knowledge field is to move forward, there are—from a business perspective—three priority areas for further research and experimentation. They are: research on how tacit knowledge can continue to be "tapped into and utilized" despite increasing economic and business forces that are disrupting the social nature of the workplace community where tacit knowledge lives and thrives; research on how to optimally structure knowledge flow between knowledge seekers and knowledge providers to maximize the impact of knowledge; and research on how to make knowledge, which by its nature is fuzzy and intangible, visible and concrete. Progress in each of these three areas would significantly contribute to making the relationship between knowledge and the firm a significant business reality.

Tacit Knowledge, Organisational Learning and Innovation A Societal Perspective

Abstract: Knowledge and competence are increasingly regarded as the most critical resources of firms and economies. Much recent attention has focused, in particular, on the importance of 'tacit knowledge' for sustaining firms’ competitiveness, and its role in technological innovation and organisational learning. This paper argues that the extent to which tacit knowledge constitutes the knowledge base of the firm, and how it is formed and used are powerfully shaped by the broader social and institutional context. It builds upon the premise that the knowledge of the firm is socially embedded. It is rooted in organisational coordination mechanisms and routines which, in turn, are heavily influenced by societal institutions. Societal level factors such as education and training systems, the structures of the labour market and social relationships between different occupational groups are important factors shaping organisational structures and processes within which the knowledge of the firm is embedded. The paper develops a four-fold typology, at the individual, organisational and societal levels, as an analytical framework to explain the links between knowledge types, patterns of work organisation and societal institutions. It shows how the three levels interact to shape the learning and innovative capabilities of firms. The theory developed in this paper represents the first attempt to integrate the diverse strands of literature and different levels of analysis into a single coherent framework. It holds promise for interpreting and understanding the sources of differences in learning and innovation practices between firms, industries and countries.

The Impact of Knowledge Codification, Experience Trajectories and Integration Strategies on the Performance of Corporate Acquisitions

Abstract: This study addresses the following questions: (1) can organizations learn how to manage infrequent and heterogeneous tasks ? (2) If they can, then what are the mechanisms that might explain learning under these circumstances ?, and (3) what are the limitations under which these mechanisms operate ? A model based on explicit knowledge codification and tacit experience accumulation is submitted and tested using data from a sample of 183 acquisitions in the US banking industry Measures of post-acquisition integration strategies and of pre-acquisition resource characteristics are included in the model We find that tacit knowledge accumulation significantly impacts performance when the experiences are highly homogeneous, and that knowledge codification improves acquisition performance in the context of high post-acquisition integration, ie when the organizational challenge is particularly complex Also, the level of integration between the two firms involved in the acquisition positively influences performance, while the replacement of top managers in the acquired firm impacts performance in a negative fashion Implications are drawn for organizational learning theory and for a knowledge-based view of corporate acquisitions

The Influence of Tacit Knowledge and Collective Mind on Strategic Planning

Abstract: Decision making through rigorous thinking is a way of life for managers. However, their perception of how they are supposed to think and the decision processes they use is plagued by inconsistency. Throughout their education managers are taught the rational or analytical method of strategic planning (Ansoff, 1988; Mintzberg, 1994). Through personal experiences, however, they have learned that making decisions using tacit, or hidden, knowledge is quite effective (Isenberg, 1984). Managers, through their strategic choices, determine the success or failure of an organization (Andrews, 1971; Ansoff, 1988; Child, 1972; Priem, 1994). In this article we propose a model of the strategic decision-making process used by members of top management teams (TMTs). Specifically, we couple two criteria: 1) the supra-individual concept of the collective mind (Durkheim, 1895; Neck and Manz, 1994; Weick and Roberts, 1993) with 2) the efficacy of tacit knowledge and intuition in decision making (Agor, 1986a; Isenberg, 1984; Polanyi, 1966). The phenomenon of a collective mind is formed when a group of individuals enacts a single memory complete with differentiated responsibilities for remembering appropriate portions of a common experience. It is revealed in shared vocabularies (Martin, 1992), consensus on strategic means and ends (Bourgeois, 1980; Dess, 1987), and shared perceptions of the organization's environment, strategic position, and prospects (Hambrick, 1981). Tacit knowledge is defined as work-related practical knowledge (Wagner and Sternberg, 1986). It is that which is neither expressed nor declared openly but rather implied or simply understood and is often associated with intuition. Intuition is broadly considered as direct knowing, immediate understanding, learning without the conscious use of reasoning, or making a choice without formal analysis (Behling and Eckel, 1991). Intuition is also considered a conduit between the subconscious and conscious (Parikh et al., 1994) and used to access tacit knowledge (Anthony et al., 1995). Traditionally, the rational analysis method is the preferred decisionmaking method taught and stressed (Mintzberg et al., 1995). An emphasis on tacit knowledge, or intuition, is contrary to these teachings and often carries a stigma (Agor, 1986a). However, everyone incorporates tacit knowledge in the decision process to some degree (Agor, 1985a; Polanyi, 1966). Our purpose here is not to denigrate the time honored rational or analytical decision-making process. Rather, we simply attempt to highlight the intuitive approach to making decisions in order to show its benefits to the strategic planning process. Through our proposals, we contend that incorporating tacit knowledge into a model of the strategic decision-making process is appropriate. Furthermore, it is beneficial to broaden the definition of strategic decision maker to include the collective mind (Weick and Roberts, 1993) of the TMT. Previous studies (e.g., Bantel and Jackson, 1989; Finkelstein, 1992; Hambrick and Mason, 1984; Wiersema and Bantel, 1993) have shown that consideration of the TMT as a whole can be more explanatory than reviewing independent tiers of the leadership hierarchy or the CEO alone. We therefore focus on the TMT as the group of top level senior executives of an organization who make strategic decisions. However, we refrain from ascribing individual psychological characteristics to a collective mind (Walsh, 1995) by considering team members as individuals whom are influenced by the collective. In the following sections of this article, we present a review of tacit knowledge and its relation to intuition. This is followed by incorporating tacit knowledge and the collective mind into a partial model of the TMT strategic decision-making process along with corresponding propositions. Research implications germane to further study of this area and implications applicable to the practitioner conclude the article. …

Learning and skills in the Knowledge Economy

Abstract: Knowledge and learning are widely regarded as defining features of the modern economy. They are a focus of intense interest amongst policy makers as well as academics. Important recent attempts have been made to try to elucidate the interactions between the different forms of knowledge: especially codified knowledge (mainly know-what and know-why) and tacit knowledge (know-how and know-who). This paper extends this approach by arguing that the key vectors of innovation and growth lie in the dynamic interactions between codified and tacit knowledge. This basic insight reinforces the idea that effective learning takes place through a combination of experiential learning (mainly tacit) and formal learning (mainly codified), which places a large question mark over current systems of education and training which still tend to separate these phases of learning. The paper also questions approaches to teaching and learning which continue to regard ‘skills’ as attributes of individuals. In fact, most skills are rather specific to the social environments in which they are acquired and applied. This explains a considerable amount of the difficult of recruiting or transferring ‘qualified personnel’. In policy terms, this raises significant challenges to both employers and educators to embed learning routines into the work environment and to validate experiential learning in the workplace by accrediting these practical skills in ways which will generalise them and give them a longer term value in the labour market.

The importance of tacit knowledge in strategic deliberations and decisions

Abstract: Strategic decision making is a rather unstructured process with a wide variety of conflicting and equivocal considerations and inputs. Managers, usually working in top management teams, are asked to form an “interpretation” or working knowledge of the internal and external influences on the organization. This article suggests the real value of tacit knowledge and intuition to managers in the upper reaches of the organization. Tacit knowledge, based on the cumulative experiences of the manager, is equivalent to the intuitive feel and “softer” ways of knowing that all humans experience. It has been found to be quite valuable to upper‐level managers, but especially when intermingled with sound data analysis and more formal insight. When groups of managers can exchange and share the different types of knowledge, a complementary and synergistic learning process occurs. Managers are able to draw from a broader, more diverse set of possibilities and insights.

Practical intelligence at work : Relationship between aging and cognitive efficiency among Managers in a bank environment

Abstract: A study was conducted to determine which better predicts performance among bank managers: tacit practical knowledge as assessed by the Tacit Knowledge Inventory for Managers (TKIM) or 2 psychometric measures of reasoning, the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (Raven's) and the Verbal Reasoning subtest of the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT). Two hundred bank managers (43 experts and 157 nonexperts), ages 24-59 years old, participated. Increased age was associated with lower performance in Raven's and the DAT but less so in the TKIM; best performing older managers on average had high levels of tacit knowledge, although they scored lower on psychometric reasoning measures; TKIM predicted managerial skill; DAT and Raven's did not. These results suggest that stabilization of some aspects of intelligence may occur in old age. Implications of the findings for the study of practical intelligence, expertise, and compensatory abilities are discussed.

The Social Embeddedness of Knowledge Problems of Knowledge Sharing and Organisational Learning in International High-Technology Ventures

Abstract: The growing importance of knowledge-based competition has prompted many firms to build international cooperative ventures for skills acquisition and knowledge building. Based on an empirical study of a close collaboration in the knowledge intensive area between a British and a Japanese high-technology firm, the paper examines how the socially embedded nature of knowledge can impede cross-national collaborative work and knowledge sharing. The paper uses Michael Polanyi's concept of 'tacit knowledge' in a much wider societal context. It develops a conceptual model for analysing the main differences and 'points of friction' between the British 'professional' and the Japanese 'organisational' models of organisation of knowledge in high-level technical work. It shows how the dominant form of knowledge held in organisations, its degree of tacitness, and the way in which it is structured, utilised and transmitted can vary considerably between firms in different societal settings. The study demonstrates a strong presence of 'societal effects' on the knowledge base of the firm and how this might impose a limit on knowledge sharing and organisational learning across national boundaries.

Communication Norms and the Collective Cognitive Performance of "Invisible Colleges".

Abstract: Scientific research communities may be studied as social networks within which ideas or statements circulate, acquire validity as reliable knowledge, and are recombined to generate further new ideas. Social networks also form the locus for the transmission of tacit knowledge and skills requisite to the interpretation and operationalization of scientific statements. These extensive, yet informal structures of inter-personal knowledge-transactions have been referred to as constituting “invisible colleges”. This paper develops an abstract and highly stylized account of the communications structure of an invisible college, and examines its collective epistemological performance by employing concepts and results from Markov random field theory.

Exploring Expertise: Issues and Perspectives

Abstract: We live in an age where the number and range of specialist fields of knowledge is burgeoning, and where ‘experts’ from these fields are called on to solve problems and advise in ever more areas of social and economic life. Time and again, however, our reliance on experts and expertise creates dilemmas which strike at the root of modern society — from the practice of democracy and political change to how companies decide on, and implement strategies for, economic growth. Accordingly, the subject of expertise is becoming a recognized ‘issue’ in a range of scholarly disciplines: not least, science and technology studies, including technology assessment and science and technology policy; gender studies, especially feminist critiques of science and medicine; organizational sociology and behaviour; management, especially strategic management, technology management, and human resource management; and in the various disciplines associated with the development of expert systems and artificial intelligence.

Brand Knowledge Management: Growing Brand Equity

Abstract: The concept of Brand Knowledge Management looks to move brand‐led organizations from content to process and from data to tacit knowledge. This paper proposes a manifesto for brand marketing that re‐focuses its activities and challenges the roles, structures and behaviour of its management. Above all, it provides a new framework for developing, exploiting and managing brand knowledge.

Knowledge Management and the Law Firm

Abstract: This paper seeks to redress the imbalance between technology and information by first examining three models of Knowledge Management with reference to the law firm context. Secondly, it examines the relationship that exists between the harnessing of corporate knowledge and the overall goals of a law firm, and in particular law firm profitability. Finally, given the existence of this relationship, it provides some signposts for the development of a Law Firm Knowledge Management Strategy.

Expertise: Knowledge, Power and Tradeability

Abstract: Expertise is a subject of widespread and increasing interest. It is currently being analyzed from a number of very different disciplinary perspectives, as well-attested by the range of references cited in this book. Expertise has become a crucial issue for three related reasons.

The state of the product in knowledge management

Abstract: This paper describes existing knowledge management (KM) tools and technologies in a historical context: where they have been, where they are now, and where they are going. It examines KM technologies in relation to early work done by Douglas Engelbart, subsequent developments in business and management, and recent technological advances. Finally, from this historical vantage point, the authors address the future of KM.

Tacit Knowledge in Military Leadership: Evidence of Construct Validity

Abstract: : Army officers within the command structure of 44 CONUS battalions were administered tests developed to measure the tacit leadership knowledge of platoon leaders, company commanders and battalion commanders. Tests at each level consisted of a series of scenarios derived from actual experiences with a set of possible responses to the leadership situation described. In addition, the 562 officers were also administered a test of verbal reasoning ability, a related test of tacit knowledge developed for business managers, and a criterion measure of leadership effectiveness. Analyses were performed to determine if the tacit knowledge for military leadership inventories predicted leadership effectiveness and if they predicted better than the other measures. The inventories predicted leadership effectiveness ratings at each level and did so better than verbal reasoning ability, tacit knowledge for managers, or experience. A complex relationship emerged between tacit leadership knowledge and leadership effectiveness ratings at the three command levels, supporting the use of a multi-level approach in assessing tacit knowledge.