Showing papers on "Tacit knowledge published in 1999"

Bridging Epistemologies: the Generative Dance Between Organizational Knowledge and Organizational Knowing

Abstract: Much current work on organizational knowledge, intellectual capital, knowledge-creating organizations, knowledge work, and the like rests on a single, traditional understanding of the nature of knowledge. We call this understanding the "episte-mology of possession," since it treats knowledge as something people possess. Yet, this epistemology cannot account for the knowing found in individual and group practice. Knowing as action calls for an "epistemology of practice." Moreover, the epistemology of possession tends to privilege explicit over tacit knowledge, and knowledge possessed by individuals over that possessed by groups. Current work on organizations is limited by this privileging and by the scant attention given to knowing in its own right. Organizations are better understood if explicit, tacit, individual and group knowledge are treated as four distinct and coequal forms of knowledge (each doing work the others cannot), and if knowledge and knowing are seen as mutually enabling (not competing). We hold that knowledge is a tool of knowing, that knowing is an aspect of our interaction with the social and physical world, and that the interplay of knowledge and knowing can generate new knowledge and new ways of knowing. We believe this generative dance between knowledge and knowing is a powerful source of organizational innovation. Harnessing this innovation calls for organizational and technological infrastructures that support the interplay of knowledge and knowing. Ultimately, these concepts make possible a more robust framing of such epistemologically-centered concerns as core competencies, the management of intellectual capital, etc. We explore these views through three brief case studies drawn from recent research.

Motivation, Knowledge Transfer, and Organizational Forms

Abstract: Employees are motivated intrinsically as well as extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation is crucial when tacit knowledge in and between teams must be transferred. Organizational forms enable different kinds of motivation and have different capacities to generate and transfer tacit knowledge. Since knowledge generation and transfer are essential for a firm's sustainable competitive advantage, we ask specifically what kinds of motivation are needed to generate and transfer tacit knowledge, as opposed to explicit knowledge.

Managing Codified Knowledge

Abstract: Firms can derive significant benefits from consciously, proactively, and aggressively managing their explicit and explicable knowledge, which many consider the most important factor of production in the knowledge economy. Doing this in a coherent manner requires aligning a firm's organizational and technical resources and capabilities with its knowledge strategy. However, appropriately explicating tacit knowledge so it can be efficiently and meaningfully shared and reapplied ? especially outside the originating community ? is one of the least understood aspects of knowledge management. This suggests a more fundamental challenge, namely, determining which knowledge an organization should make explicit and which it should leave tacit ? a balance that can affect competitive performance. The management of explicit knowledge utilizes four primary resources that the author details: repositories of explicit knowledge; refineries for accumulating, refining, managing, and distributing the knowledge; organization roles to execute and manage the refining process; and information technologies to support the repositories and processes. On the basis of this concept of knowledge management architecture, a firm can segment knowledge processing into two broad classes: integrative and interactive ? each addressing different knowledge management objectives. Together, these approaches provide a broad set of knowledge-processing capabilities. They support well-structured repositories for managing explicit knowledge, while enabling interaction to integrate tacit knowledge. The author presents two case studies of managing explicit knowledge. One is an example of an integrative architecture for the electronic publishing of knowledge gleaned by industry research analysts. The second illustrates the effective use of an interactive architecture for discussion forums to support servicing customers. Zack also discusses several key issues about the broader organizational context for knowledge management, the design and management of knowledge-processing applications, and the benefits that must accrue to be successful. In summary, organizations that are managing knowledge effectively (1) understand their strategic knowledge requirements, (2) devise a knowledge strategy appropriate to their business strategy, and (3) implement an organizational and technical architecture appropriate to the firm's knowledge-processing needs.

Perspectives on activity theory: Innovative learning in work teams: Analyzing cycles of knowledge creation in practice

Abstract: Introduction Innovative organizational learning is collaborative learning in work organizations that produces new solutions, procedures, or systemic transformations in organizational practices (Engestrom, 1995). Studies of innovative organizational learning have thus far produced relatively general conceptual tools (e.g., Argyris & Schon, 1978; Senge, 1990). Although it is commonly acknowledged that innovative learning at work has a complex cyclic character (e.g., Dixon, 1994), there have been few detailed attempts to theorize about such cycles and to model their steps as they occur in learning processes in work teams. One of the most interesting attempts is the recent book by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). These authors focus exclusively on innovative learning, which they prefer to call knowledge creation in organizations. Nonaka and Takeuchi propose a theory of knowledge on which they build a model of cycles of knowledge production. Their examples are drawn primarily from practices and cases of new product development in Japanese companies. In my research projects on work teams in American and Finnish organizations, we have identified and analyzed a number of innovative learning processes within and between teams (for recent examples, see Engestrom, 1994a, 1995; Engestrom, Engestrom, & Karkkainen, 1995). We typically videotape series of team meetings and interactions at work and analyze transcripts of these interactions as our prime data. This approach enables us to conduct very detailed data-driven analyses of the discursive processes, practical actions, and mediating artifacts that are employed in the step-by-step production of an innovative solution or idea.

Knowledge management and innovation: networks and networking

Abstract: Begins with a critical review of the literature on knowledge management, arguing that its focus on IT to create a network structure may limit its potential for encouraging knowledge sharing across social communities. Two cases of interactive innovation are contrasted. One focused almost entirely on using IT (intranet) for knowledge sharing, resulting in a plethora of independent intranets which reinforced existing organizational and social boundaries with electronic “fences”. In the other, while IT was used to provide a network to encourage sharing, there was also recognition of the importance of face‐to‐face interaction for sharing tacit knowledge. The emphasis was on encouraging active networking among dispersed communities, rather than relying on IT networks. Argues for a community‐based model of knowledge management for interactive innovation and contrasts this with the cognitive‐based view that underpins many IT‐led knowledge management initiatives.

Collective Learning, Tacit Knowledge and Regional Innovative Capacity

Abstract: LAWSON C. and LORENZ E. (1999) Collective learning, tacit knowledge and regional innovative capacity, Reg. Studies 33 , 305‐317 . The paper reviews key ideas in the firm capabilities literature and shows how they can be usefully extended to develop a conception of collective learning among regionally clustered enterprises. The paper also explores the relationship between codifiable and tacit knowledge in the innovation process, and investigates the claim that tacit knowledge, because it is difficult to transfer in the absence of labour mobility, may constitute a basis for sustained regional competitive advantage. The closing section uses case study material based on Minneapolis and Cambridge to illustrate the importance for innovation of a regional capability for combining and integrating diverse knowledge, and of the sources of such capabilities as pre-conditions for successful high technology regions. LAWSON C. et LORENZ E. (1999) L'apprentissage collectif, la connaissance implicite et la capacite regio...

The Competitiveness of Firms and Regions: ‘Ubiquitification’ and the Importance of Localized Learning

Abstract: In traditional location theory there is a distinction between factors of production for which the costs differ significantly between locations, on the one hand, and production inputs which are in practice available everywhere at more or less the same cost (i.e. so-called ubiquities) on the other.In this article, we discuss the process whereby some previously important location factors are actively converted into ubiquities. With an admittedly rather horrendous term, we label this process ‘ubi-quitification’. It is argued that ubiquitification is the outcome of the ongoing globalization process as well as of a process whereby former tacit knowledge gradually becomes codified.Ubiquitification tends to undermine the competitiveness of firms in the high-cost areas of the world. When international markets are opened up and when knowledge of the latest production technologies and organizational designs become globally available, firms in low-cost areas become more competitive. In a knowledge-based economy, as a...

Tacit Knowledge in Organizations

Abstract: Philippe Baumard, in his book ‘Tacit Knowledge in Organizations’ (translated by Samantha Wauchope), brings classical epistemology together with a historian's approach to four contemporary business situations. The re-suit is a sharply drawn knowledge-based theory of the firm—or, rather, of its management. Baumard is interested in a particular model of corporate strategizing, which he defines as finding ways to deal with the ‘fog’ and confusion that periodically overcome organizations in today's hypercompetitive environment. Baumard's theory is that firms make progress through such fog by strategically shifting the way they think (their adopted epistemology), as well as what they think about.

Tacit Knowledge in Organizations

Abstract: Philippe Baumard, in his book ‘Tacit Knowledge in Organizations’ (translated by Samantha Wauchope), brings classical epistemology together with a historian's approach to four contemporary business situations. The re-suit is a sharply drawn knowledge-based theory of the firm—or, rather, of its management. Baumard is interested in a particular model of corporate strategizing, which he defines as finding ways to deal with the ‘fog’ and confusion that periodically overcome organizations in today's hypercompetitive environment. Baumard's theory is that firms make progress through such fog by strategically shifting the way they think (their adopted epistemology), as well as what they think about.

Capabilities and Governance: The Rebirth of Production in the Theory of Economic Organization

Abstract: This paper argues that, since Ronald H. Coase's seminal 1937 paper on 'The Nature of the Firm,' the economics of organization has focused too exclusively on issues of incentive alignment and has ignored issues of imperfect knowledge in production. However, there is now emerging an approach to economic organization--which the authors call 'the capabilities approach.' They argue that the capabilities approach complements incentive-based theory (1) by considering the problems of imperfect knowledge in production as well as in governance and (2) by considering issues not only of incentive alignment but also of qualitative coordination among holders of specialized, distributed, and often tacit knowledge. Copyright 1999 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG

Is geographical proximity necessary in the innovation networks in the era of global economy

Abstract: In the analysis of geographical spillovers, a commonly accepted hypothesis is that the different actors of innovation need to be physically closed to one another because the transfer of tacit knowledge implies frequent face-to-face relations. This hypothesis is put under closer examination in this paper. The first section analyses the need for economic agents to be closely located to develop research and innovative activities, starting with the analysis of their need for co-ordination and using some case studies. Based on the example of three French regions, the second section examines the importance given by the local development policies to geographical proximity in order to support the rapid development of local networks favouring innovation. In both sections, nonlocal relations appear as a key factor to develop innovation. As a conclusion, nonlocal relations should be encouraged by local development policies in the same way as local relations.

Formality Considered Harmful: Experiences, EmergingThemes, and Directions on the Use of Formal Representations inInteractive Systems

Abstract: This paper reflects on experiences designing, developing, and working with users of a variety of interactive computer systems. The authors propose, based on these experiences, that the cause of a number of unexpected difficulties in human-computer interaction lies in users‘ unwillingness or inability to make structure, content, or procedures explicit. Besides recounting experiences with system use, this paper discusses why users reject or circumvent formalisms which require such explicit expression, and suggests how system designers can anticipate and compensate for problems users have in making implicit aspects of their tasks explicit. The authors propose computational approaches that address this problem, including incremental and system-assisted formalization mechanisms and methods for recognizing and using undeclared structure; they also propose non-computational solutions that involve designers and users reaching a shared understanding of the task situation and the methods that motivate the formalisms. This paper poses that, while it is impossible to remove all formalisms from computing systems, system designers need to match the level of formal expression entailed with the goals and situation of the users -- a design criteria not commonly mentioned in current interface design.

Learning and Adaptation in Decentralised Business Networks

Abstract: In this paper we address two problems related to what can be claimed about the powers of decentralised business networks. The first concerns the role of tacit knowledge and proximity in securing co...

Organisational factors and knowledge management within large marketing departments: an empirical study

Abstract: One hundred and seventy‐nine heads of sales or direct marketing departments in large UK companies across five industry sectors completed mail questionnaires concerning the knowledge management (KM) practices employed by their firms. The extents of the KM systems operating within sample enterprises were analysed with respect to each company’s use of teamwork, level of bureaucracy and centralisation of decision making, innovativeness, and ability to cope with change. Respondents’ views on the contributions of KM to marketing management were also examined.

What Is a Chief Knowledge Officer

Abstract: To understand the role of chief knowledge officer (CKO) and the evolving practice of knowledge management (KM), the authors studied twenty CKOs in North America and Europe using face-to-face interviews, and a personality assessment questionnaire. All CKOs were first incumbents, most having been on the job less than two years. Appointed by CEOs more through intuition and instinct than through analysis or strategic logic, the CKOs had to discover and develop the CEO's implicit vision of how KM would make a difference. The CKOs agreed that knowledge is a necesssary and sustainable source of competitive advantage and that companies are not good at managing either explicit knowledge (expressed in words or numbers and shared as scientific formulas, codified procedures, or universal principles) or tacit knowledge (personal, experiential, context specific, and hard to formalize). CKOs have two principal design competencies: they are technologists (able to understand which technologies can contribute to capturing, storing, exploring, and sharing knowledge) and environmentalists (able to create social environments that stimulate and facilitate arranged and chance conversations or able to develop events and processes to encourage deliberate knowledge creation and exchange). As self-starters and risk takers, these CKOs are entrepreneurs who can strategize about transforming the corporation through KM and are driven by building something and seeing it through. By matching new ideas with the business needs of their constituencies, the CKOs are also consultants, trafficking in ideas that fit the corporation's knowledge vision. Breadth of career experience, familiarity with their organizations, and infectious enthusiasm for their mission are characteristic of these CKOs. The personality characteristics and competencies of these CKOs are unusual and distinctive. They need to be sociable and energetic yet tolerant and pragmatic. Finding the right person is at least as important as deciding to create the CKO role. Two critical success factors have emerged: the need for organizational slack time (for thinking, dreaming, talking, and selling) and high-level sponsorship beyond visible CEO support. The CKO must make senior executives and prominent line managers believe in KM ? a goal that is indivisible from winning and retaining personal trust.

The impact of U.S. company internationalization on top management team advice networks: a tacit knowledge perspective

Abstract: This study surveys 37 U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs) to examine the effect of internationalization on one dimension of the top management team’s (TMT’s) character: international business advice network density. This study draws on international business (IB) theory, the resource-based view of the firm, and philosophy of science and its view of tacit knowledge. Results show that both the firm’s internationalization extent, and the interdependence that exists across its country–market activities, are positively related to the TMT’s IB advice network density. As the extent of the MNC’s business outside the United States grows and the linkages among its IB units intensify, the demand for IB expertise within the TMT increases, TMT members share each other’s knowledge of IB more extensively and the TMT’s IB advice network density increases. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Networks, cognition and management of tacit knowledge

Abstract: Knowledge is a magic term with multiple connotations and interpretations. It is an issue of academic discourse as well as one with important implications for business institutions. How we define and frame knowledge carries implications for the way we try to manage knowledge in organizations and the de facto knowledge in organizations also carries implications for the knowledge existing in organizations. Within the last few decades, there has been an increasing interest in the tacit dimension of knowledge, which is perhaps hardest to manage, as it cannot be formally communicated, and is often embedded in the routines and standard operating procedures of the organization. Focuses on characteristics of this strategic important knowledge and how it can be organized in networks. Should be read as a case for paying more attention to knowledge and networks and how to manage these in organizations.

Expertise and Tacit Knowledge in Medicine

Abstract: Observers of the medical profession have often commented on the tension between the art and science of medicine. The science of medicine is viewed as emerging from the “bench” in the laboratories. Indeed, clinical medicine is built on a foundation that draws on the biomedical sciences of anatomy, biochemistry, as well as physiology and applied sciences such as pathology, radiology, and medical physics. The art of medicine has been seen as “practice at the bedside.” In medical folklore, the bedside has become a metaphor for all patient care. The science of medicine in clinical practice sees the physician as correlating or applying principles in an axiomatic or deductive fashion to a patient’s symptoms, yielding a precise diagnostic solution. The artistic approach involves the use of intuition, experience, and holistic perceptions in making clinical judgments and in the delivery of humane care. Traditionally, the scientific dimension is viewed as the application of explicit knowledge, and the more intuitive artistic sidedraws on tacit knowledge. Although there is some truth in this distinction, the actual boundaries are much harder to delineate. As research into the study of expert performance has demonstrated, there is considerable tacit knowledge that underlies scientific reasoning in medicine (Patel, Arocha, & Kaufman, 1994). Similarly, there is a wealth of inarticulate scientific knowledge that supports the seemingly intuitive judgment of the expert practitioner. The poem by Alexander Pope exemplifies this paradox, where art and science and the tacit and explicit are blurred in the service of some common underlying order. Although all may not yield to a collective good, the hope is that it will yield some common understanding.

The development of evidence‐based nursing

Abstract: This paper argues that the current conception of evidence-based medicine has its limitations in the promotion of research which effects the quality of service in any health care system. It also poses something of a difficulty for the development of evidence-based nursing in particular. This paper advocates the more broad based concept of evidence-based practice and discusses its potential for addressing theory/practice problems and the uptake of nursing research. The broader conceptualization of evidence-based practice focuses on the integration of available evidence and the tacit knowledge of the investigator. An evidence-based practice project undertaken in Hong Kong is outlined as this provided the basis of many of the conclusions made in this paper. Three vignettes are given in order to demonstrate the nature of the evidence-based practice projects which have been conducted. The critical elements of evidence-based practice projects are outlined. Finally issues concerning the process of generating evidence, the relationship to continuous quality improvement and the cost effectiveness of evidence-based practice are discussed in more detail.

Story telling: an old skill in a new context

Abstract: Story telling is a uniting and defining component of all communities. The quality of story telling and its conformity or otherwise with desired corporate values is one measure of the overall health of an organisation. Stories exist in all organisations; managed and purposeful story telling provides a powerful mechanism for the disclosure of intellectual or knowledge assets in companies, it can also provide a non-intrusive, organic means of producing sustainable cultural change; conveying brands and values; transferring complex tacit knowledge. Too many management theories are based on mechanical models of the organisation, which fail to recognise that success is best achieved by treating the organisation as a complex ecology, whose workings cannot be fully predicted. In this article the use of story telling will be explored in respect of different business purposes. This will provide a pragmatic approach to the use of the age-old ability of communities to convey complex knowledge through story telling that will provide readers with tools and concepts that can be readily applied in their own organisations. In the first, of two articles Dave Snowden explores some examples of story telling with a purpose and draws some conclusions. In the concluding article he will examine a structured approach to the creation of stories in a modern organisation and will look at the various repository structures that can be used to disseminate stories in virtual communities. Authors note: Please note that the Cynefin Centre now uses the term ‘narrative’, rather than ‘story-telling’ to differentiate the tools, processes and approaches of The Cynefin Centre from those of the organisational story telling movement.

Tacit knowledge and the epistemology of expertise in strategic marketing management

Abstract: Discusses issues concerning the relationship between codified marketing theory and practical strategic marketing expertise, particularly with respect to the importance of “tacit” or unarticulated knowledge. The trajectory of argument draws attention to the role of words as symbolic modelling devices and explores implications of this position for theorising marketing expertise. Makes use of a multidisciplinary perspective and draws material from work in cognitive science, the psychology of expertise and the philosophy of science. Sets the problematisation of practical theory in marketing within a broader context of a possible epistemological “crisis” of rationality in practical disciplines. The conclusion suggests that an epistemology of expertise for marketing management demands both theoretical and linguistic sophistication and implies a pedagogic shift towards a model of philosophic enquiry in marketing.

The Practitioner-Researcher: Developing Theory from Practice

Abstract: The Practitioner-Researcher: Developing Theory from Practice by Peter Jarvis Jossey-Bass Publishers, 350 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94104 1999 $29.95, ISBN: 0-7879-3880-7 Practitioner-researchers are emerging as our learning society moves from a modern, scientif-- ic approach where practice has evolved from theory handed down by academia, to a more postmodern (or late modernity) mode wherein change is so pervasive that the development of theory is coming from the practice itself. Practitioners are generating their own personal theories about their practice by experimenting with the objective knowledge from traditional theory and professional training while engaged in practice. In his book, Jarvis cites examples from education, nursing, and management consultancy to show just how widespread the role of practitioner-researcher has become in recent years. He explains this is due to management needs for data to aid in decision-making and the requirement of master and doctoral level research projects and practicums for professionals seeking continuing education. The book begins with a preface which outlines the purpose, audience, content and background quite succinctly. In the author's words, the purpose of the book is "to highlight and examine the role of the practitioner-researcher and to try to understand more clearly the relationship between practice, practical knowledge, and theory" (p.xiii). The book is divided into five parts. In Part One, the first three chapters discuss the connections between research and practice. Part Two (chapters four through six) examines the nature of practice. Part Three highlights five different types of research commonly carried out by practitioners. As Part Four, the next three chapters focus on the connections between practice and theory. The last part reflects on the concept of the practitionerresearcher and how this new role blends with the learning society. Each chapter is fairly short, divided into logical sections, and includes a summarizing conclusion. In Part One, Jarvis introduces the dual role of the practitioner-researcher. He explains that many professions have required much pre-service training in the theory behind the practice, with few practical experiences, although some do offer apprenticing, practicums, and sandwich courses (where a semester to a year is spent away from the classroom and in a job setting before returning to finish the schooling). Thus, the practitioner usually begins another learning cycle. However, changes in educational practices are beginning to be seen and small research projects, case studies, and reflective assignments are being required more and more. This is especially the case in continuing education for practitioners. There is a need for practitioners to research their own practice for a variety of reasons. Practice is transitory, personal, and unique. It is always changing and practitioners must be able to learn how to respond to their changing situations. Part Two explores the nature of practice through the practitioner's knowledge, the practice itself, and role of reflection in practice. This was a very academic section of the book where much theory was presented. Jarvis goes into great detail to explain the differences between practical knowledge-pragmatic, what has worked in the past and is integrated from a variety of sources; tacit knowledge - the aspect of practical knowledge that one acts on almost intuitively as if it has always been known; habituation - repetition of successful actions until some experience occurs to change the expectation of behavior; and habitus - the collective history of the group, the integration of the culture of the workplace and the experienced workers. Jarvis contends that the habitus is what is missing from theory and which makes practice so fluid. In order to discover it for oneself, one must become a reflective practitioner, the first step to becoming a practitionerresearcher. …

How does knowledge transform as it is transferred? Speculations on the possibility of a cognitive theory of knowledgescapes

Abstract: Sketches an interdisciplinary framework for advancing the conceptual understanding of the knowledge transfer process. Uses its central tenet that the knowledge transfer process is ultimately a human‐to‐human process and since this process is inherently interactive and dynamic, the knowledge, in essence, transforms while or during the very process of its transfer. Argues that there is a need for a more robust representation of human cognition situated in the broader context of dynamic interactions taking place during the transfer or exchange of knowledge. Proposes that by incorporating and explaining human interaction with the external symbolic storage (ESS) of knowledge and scaffolding to include institutional knowledge, a theory of cognitive knowledgescapes can be built. The implications of a such a theory for knowledge transfer, exchange and uses in the networks of regions, institutions, organizations and technology are examined and topics for carrying out further research are suggested.

Smart Business: How Knowledge Communities Can Revolutionize Your Company

Abstract: From the Book: Foreword An Economy of Ideas Alan M. Webber Fast Company Boston, MA We are living in an economy of ideas. Just look around you, at the companies that are dominating today's headlines, at the organizations that are commanding our attention, at the people and teams that are capturing our imaginations. What we are witnessing is the creation of a new world of business, a place vastly different from that of the past. The old ways of keeping score -- measures of tangible assets, factors of production such as land, factories, equipment, office buildings -- are giving way to new metrics: The team with the best ideas, the best people, the most integrated way of working, the greatest passion, the closest relationship with the customer, the most out-of-the-box business model, the best execution, that's the team that wins. Soft assets matter most today. Ideas. People. Teamwork. Communities. Passion. Values. And knowledge. That's the world that Jim Botkin and this book seek to bring to life. It is the new world of work, an exciting, exacting, creative place, populated by men and women with fresh ways of thinking and purposeful ways of working. It is, importantly, a post-reengineering world. For most people and most companies, business process reengineering is a troublesome memory, a "Why did we do that to ourselves?" experience that today awakens feelings of organizational trauma and human distress. The recollection of downsizings, outsourcings, and other slash-and-bum tactics that celebrated business processes before business people, has left people wondering what that original belief actually was. Did we ever really believe, as seriousbusiness people,tnd of guide we need at this time, a playful mind and a trusted companion who can take us into a future where the old maps don't pertain and the only compass available is inside your head and heart. If you choose to follow Jim Botkin into this exploration of a new business frontier, you will very quickly encounter some compelling questions that challenge most of your deepest-held assumptions about how business works. Take, for example, the question, Where do good ideas come from? This, it seems to me, is an elemental question, one that sits very close to the heart of the new economy. There is, of course, an old economy answer to this question. Good ideas -- often more formally masquerading as "innovation" or "creativity" or "strategy" -- come from the top. They come from the CEO, the boss, the corner office. After all, the big dog at the top is the one person in the organization, with all the answers, right? Or maybe, in some organizations, good ideas come from the duly constituted Department of Good Ideas. These are the professionals who have all the credentials necessary to think big thoughts, do strategy, manage the innovation process, and marshal the organization's resources to develop a breakthrough product or service. Coming up with good ideas -- that's serious business, right? The kind of stuff best left to the pros. Or so it went. But, as most of us know about life in the new economy -- an economy that runs on ideas -- the old sources are running dry The big boss in the corner office is too far away from the fast changes in technology to know what's really going on. Customers are too fickle, competitors too slippery, markets too dynamic. And as for those pros in the Department of Good Ide as, they spend too much time talking to each other to have much of an idea of what's happening in the real world. They're playing by the old rules, and that's like dancing the minuet to rap music. No, good ideas come from the heads of the people in the organization. Good ideas come from the trenches, where people are closest to the action. Good ideas come from your customers -- if you're close enough to listen to them, and humble enough to pay attention. Good ideas come from your most recent hires -- the Young Turks who are least likely to accept, as a valid response to their probing questions, the lamest of answers: "Because that's the way we've always done it." Good ideas are resident everywhere in the organization, at all levels, in all functions. They are in the dirty fingernails of the factory workers, the laptop notes of the sales force, the service notes of the telephone operators, the repair records of the tech reps in the field. In other words, as this book makes clear through anecdote and analysis, good ideas are the inchoate stuff that organizations carry around with them in the brains of their people. Good ideas are knowledge waiting to be tapped, and it's the trademark of a smart organization -- a fast company -- that it knows how to honor and legitimize the tacit knowledge that its people have stored up in their work practices and make it visible. They do this by answering a second question: How do you capture good ideas? Like the first question, Where do good ideas come from, this one is important because of the stark comparison between thinking in the old and in the new economy In the old economy good ideas were treated as a scarce commodity. For all the resources devoted to stra tegy, innovation, and new product development, you could never be sure when a good idea would emerge -- or an idea good enough to warrant mobilizing major corporate backing for it (much less risking your next promotion or your career). As a consequence, good ideas were accidentally generated -- and just as accidentally lost. In the new economy there is less of a gap between coming up with an idea and trying it. It's a part of the idea economy Thinking and doing are lightning-fast and linked. So capturing good ideas and executing them -- quickly decisively and curiously -- is a key capability. Just as we've learned that knowledge is seeded throughout the ranks of a company's people, the ability to tap that knowledge is vested in communities. It is, in part, an unanticipated feature of the Web: like-minded people use information technology to cross boundaries, share ideas, engage in dialogue, and generate good ideas. Or they use coffee bars to do it -- either way they are creating the kinds of new communities of interest that form and re-form constantly talking their way into new ways of working, new ways of competing, new ways of creating value. Knowledge and communities, good ideas and fast execution, smart conversations and short feedback loops -- this is the stuff of a business revolution. It is the stuff of exciting times in which to live and work, a time of individual liberation, personal challenge, great opportunity, uncharted possibilities. It is the stuff of a dynamic new world of work life and personal life -- and it is the stuff that Jim Botkin has clearly focused on and made sense of in this book. Read it, think about it, talk about it, share it. Take it seriously and have fun with it -- and remember: You're in good hands with Jim. Copyright © 1999 by Jim Botkin

The learning economy and embodied knowledge flows in Great Britain

Abstract: This paper examines the `learning economy' from the perspective of occupational characteristics and changes in the British labour market between 1980 and 1992. Following a discussion of the learning and knowledge economy, cross-sectional employment data are analysed to ascertain which occupations can be classified as knowledge-based. Longitudinal career history data are then used to trace the flows of these `knowledge workers' over time. Sectoral shifts are examined, with a particular focus on the knowledge-intensive service sectors. The data come from the Employment in Britain survey: a large-scale employee survey from 1992. The approach used allows us to measure somewhat intangible aspects of economic behaviour such as learning and tacit knowledge and attempt to trace their flows. Shifts in knowledge from the manufacturing to the service sector are shown to be important and related to previous work which demonstrated the importance of knowledge intensive business services for both output and productivity in manufacturing.

Localised Learning and Industrial Competitiveness

Abstract: Unites the role that knowledge-creation plays in firm competitiveness with the importance of localized capabilities. The authors begin with the thesis that firms increasingly compete on innovation and generation of entrepreneurial rents than on cost-reduction. Essential to the ability to innovate are skills in knowledge-creation and dissemination within a firm. The path-dependent nature of knowledge creation, that is, the fact that earlier obtained knowledge influences current knowledge-creation, is explored as is the role of the entrepreneur is converting unused or unusable knowledge into a usable form. Noting that tacit knowledge, defined as knowledge that has not been put into a transmissible, symbolic form, suffers from imperfect markets and obstacles to trade, the authors contend that embedded tacit knowledge will serve as the innovative firm's competitive edge. One important facilitator of knowledge-creation is a region's institutional endowment, or the transmission in time of an accumulated stock of knowledge. Firms in industries particularly favored by a region's institutional endowment will find competitive advantages by locating there; this in turn will prompt agglomerations of related firms. However, the authors note that empirical data on this point is in conflict and call for further research. Imitation of localized capabilities is problematic due to asset mass efficiencies, time compression diseconomies, and the inter-connectedness of regional asset stocks. The ability of regions to transmit localized capabilities over time and impede their transmission over space sustains continuous regional competitiveness. Finally the cause of regional decline is considered. Asset erosion, and particularly, obsolescence, when combined with reluctance to adapt to new technologies or market lead to regional lock-in. This demonstrates that "unlearning" plays a key role in facilitating knowledge-creation and preserving firm and regional competitiveness. (CAR)

Tacit Knowledge in Academia: Its Effects on Student Learning and Achievement

Abstract: The main themes and facets of tacit knowledge (informal and implicit knowledge used to achieve one's goals) among students in higher education institutions were scrutinized. Students' socioeconomic status (SES) and gender were also examined in an effort to explain the variance in tacit knowledge and how it relates to academic achievement. Undergraduate students (N = 243) completed a questionnaire consisting of biographical information and a tacit knowledge scale, both developed by the authors. The authors applied the concept of tacit knowledge to the learning processes of students and their academic achievement. Results revealed that students with low SES made more use of tacit knowledge than students with high SES. Furthermore, we discovered that students who were high in tacit knowledge achieved higher academic grades than students who were low in tacit knowledge. Implications are drawn regarding the importance of tacit knowledge to students' success in higher learning institutions.