Showing papers on "Tacit knowledge published in 2006"

Enterprise 2.0: the dawn of emergent collaboration

Abstract: There is a new wave of business communication tools including blogs, wikis and group messaging software ? which the author has dubbed, collectively, Enterprise 2.0 ? that allow for more spontaneous, knowledge-based collaboration. These new tools, the author contends, may well supplant other communication and knowledge management systems with their superior ability to capture tacit knowledge, best practices and relevant experiences from throughout a company and make them readily available to more users. This article offers a paradigm that highlights the salient characteristics of these new technologies, which the author refers to as SLATES (search, links, authoring, tags, extensions, signals). The resulting organizational communication patterns can lead to highly productive and highly collaborative environments by making both the practices of knowledge work and its outputs more visible. Drawing on case studies and survey data, the article offers managers a set of ground rules for implementing the new technologies. First, it is necessary to create a receptive culture in order to prepare the way for new practices. Second, a common platform must be created to allow for a collaboration infrastructure. Third, an informal rollout of the technologies may be preferred to a more formal procedural change. And fourth, managerial support and leadership is crucial. Even when implanted and implemented well, these new technologies will certainly bring with them new challenges. These tools may well reduce management?s ability to exert unilateral control and to express some level of negativity. Whether a company?s leaders really want this to happen and will be able to resist the temptation to silence dissent is an open question. Leaders will have to play a delicate role if they want Enterprise 2.0 technologies to succeed.

Bridging the Science-Management Divide: Moving from Unidirectional Knowledge Transfer to Knowledge Interfacing and Sharing

Abstract: Sustainable ecosystem management relies on a diverse and multi-faceted knowledge system in which techniques are continuously updated to reflect current understanding and needs. The challenge is to minimize delay as ideas flow from intent through scientific capability, and finally to implementation to achieve desired outcomes. The best way to do this is by setting the stage for the flow of knowledge between researchers, policy makers, and resource managers. The cultural differences between these groups magnify the challenge. This paper highlights the importance of the tacit dimension of knowledge, and how this renders the concept of knowledge transfer much less useful than the concepts of information transfer and technology transfer. Instead of knowledge transfer, we propose that "co-production" of knowledge through collaborative learning between "experts" and "users" is a more suitable approach to building a knowledge system for the sustainable management of ecosystems. This can be achieved through knowledge interfacing and sharing, but requires a shift from a view of knowledge as a "thing" that can be transferred to viewing knowledge as a "process of relating" that involves negotiation of meaning among partners. Lessons from informal communities of practice provide guidance on how to nurture and promote knowledge interfacing between science and management in R&D programs.

Conceptualizing Knowledge Creation: A Critique of Nonaka's Theory*

Abstract: Nonaka’s proposition that knowledge is created through the interaction of tacit and explicit knowledge involving four modes of knowledge conversion is flawed. Two of the modes appear plausible but none are supported by evidence that cannot be explained more simply. The conceptual framework omits inherently tacit knowledge, and uses a radically subjective definition of knowledge: knowledge is in effect created by managers. A new framework is proposed suggesting that different kinds of knowledge are created by different kinds of behaviour. Following Dewey, non-reflectional behaviour is distinguished from reflective behaviour, the former being associated with tacit knowledge, and the latter with explicit knowledge. Some of the implications for academic and managerial practice are considered.

The Role Of Organizational Controls In Managing Knowledge

Abstract: We present a model demonstrating the role of organizational controls in managing organizational knowledge characterized by different combinations of knowledge attributes. Specifically, we show how particular controls (outcome, process, and clan) differ in their ability to acquire, transfer, interpret, and, finally, use knowledge. We argue that the use of different controls therefore creates distinguishably different knowledge management processes within the firm.

The theoretical foundations of knowledge management

Abstract: Knowledge management has emerged as an important field for practice and research in information systems. This field is building on theoretical foundations from information economics, strategic management, organizational culture, organizational behavior, organizational structure, artificial intelligence, quality management, and organizational performance measurement. These theories are being used as foundations for new concepts that provide a rationale for managing knowledge, define the process of managing knowledge, and enable us to evaluate the results of this process. Based on articles published between 1995 and 2005, new concepts are emerging, including knowledge economy, knowledge alliance, knowledge culture, knowledge organization, knowledge infrastructure, and knowledge equity. An analysis of the theoretical foundations of knowledge management reveals a healthy arena with a strong foundation and clear directions for future work.

Typology of knowledge, skills and competences : clarification of the concept and prototype

Abstract: intelligence, but it is actually the result of an interaction between intelligence (capacity to learn) and situation (opportunity to learn), so is more socially-constructed than intelligence. Knowledge includes theory and concepts and tacit knowledge gained as a result of the experience of performing certain tasks. Understanding refers to more holistic knowledge of processes and contexts and may be distinguished as know-why, as opposed know-that. A distinction is often made between general knowledge, which is essential irrespective of any occupational context or so fundamental as to be considered basic life knowledge, and knowledge that is specific to a sector or particular group of occupations and only likely to be encountered in such context. Weinert (1999, p. 24), for example, distinguishes: general world knowledge (generally measured by vocabulary tests that are part of many intelligence measurements, and overlapping considerably with what is defined as crystallised intelligence), and more arbitrary specialised knowledge. This specialised knowledge is necessary for meeting content specific demands and solving content-specific tasks. In contrast to general intellectual abilities, one can consider arbitrary knowledge as a demandspecific competence. 01_2005_9377-txt-EN.indd 25 28-06-2006 12:23:26 Process CyanProcess MagentaProcess YellowProcess BlackPANTONE 5415 C Typology of knowledge, skills and competences: clarification of the concept and prototype 26 Collin (1997, p. 297) cites Gardner’s association of know-how with tacit knowledge and know-that with propositional knowledge. Another way of expressing this distinction is between declarative knowledge (knowing what), and procedural knowledge (knowing how). From this perspective, it is often argued that acquiring declarative knowledge (explicit factual knowledge) must precede developing procedural knowledge, which relates to utilising knowledge in context. Gagne’s (1962) model of hierarchical knowledge fits with this approach, identifying the knowledge set necessary for understanding, learning and performing well on a criterion task. This is then traced back to each subordinate set of psychological knowledge, providing a description of knowledge that is increasingly elementary and general. Each knowledge and learning hierarchy therefore rests on primary mental abilities, with the implicit assumption of a general learning transfer capacity and logic of knowledge acquisition. In all domains there is some logic that acquiring and comprehending new knowledge demands facilitating cognitive prerequisites and specific knowledge and skills. Given this interaction between knowledge and skills, their separation in a typology is not easy. Indeed, for Klieme et al. (2004, p. 70), higher competency levels are characterised by the increasing proceduralisation of knowledge, so ‘at higher levels, knowledge is converted to skills’.

The nature and role of experiential knowledge for environmental conservation

Abstract: Understanding the nature and role of experiential knowledge for environmental conservation is a necessary step towards understanding if it should be used and how it might be applied with other types of knowledge in an evidence-based approach. This paper describes the nature of experiential and expert knowledge. It then discusses the role of experiential knowledge as a complement to scientific knowledge and explains the interplay between experiential knowledge with conservation research and practice using a simple conceptual model of how individuals learn. There are five main conclusions: (1) because experiential knowledge will always play a role in decision-making, enhancing ability to learn from experiences (including research) will have a significant influence on the effectiveness of conservation outcomes; (2) while experiential knowledge is qualitatively very different from quantitative information, both are important and complementary; (3) some experiential knowledge can be expressed quantitatively, but experiential knowledge can be difficult to isolate as single facts or propositions and qualitative methods will therefore often be required to elicit experiential knowledge; (4) because each person's expertise is unique, when using experiential knowledge the extent of a person's experience and its relevance to a particular problem need to be specified; and (5) as with any form of knowledge, there are limitations to that derived from personal experience. Synthesis and communication of research is therefore essential to help prevent erroneous thinking and, where possible, experiential knowledge should be used in conjunction with other types of information to guide conservation actions.

Adding Interpersonal Learning and Tacit Knowledge to March's Exploration-Exploitation Model

Abstract: In his classic article on exploration and exploitation, March (1991) presented an agent-based model simulating learning within an organization. His model includes mutual learning between individual...

An Examination of Collaboration and Knowledge Transfer: China–Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park

Abstract: This paper examines alliance knowledge transfer using a case study of the China–Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), an alliance involving the Chinese and Singaporean governments, their agencies, and various private sector organizations. The objective is to extend existing knowledge in the alliance learning area and provide deeper understanding of some process-oriented aspects of alliance learning performance. We found that tacit knowledge was particularly difficult to transfer and that issues involving collaborative interactions between the partners both facilitated and impeded knowledge transfer. We also found that competitive learning occurred, which impacted the partner relationship and knowledge transfer.

Stretching tacit knowledge beyond a local fix? Global spaces of learning in advertising professional service firms

Abstract: The �knowledge economy� is now widely debated and economic geographers have made a significant contribution to understanding of the influences upon the production and dissemination of tacit knowledge within and between firms. However, the continued association of tacit knowledge with practices rooted at the local scale and suggestions of territorially sticky knowledges has proven controversial. Through examination of empirical material exploring the stretching of learning in advertising professional service firms, the paper argues that we need to recognise the use of two different epistemologies of organizational knowledge leverage - �knowledge transfer� in the form of best practice and �the social production of new knowledge� - and their complementary yet differentiated roles in organizations and differing spatial reaches. This highlights the existence of multiple geographies of tacit knowledge and the need to be more subtle in our arguments about its geographies. In particular, the paper reveals that tacit knowledge can have global geographies when knowledge management practices focus on reproducing rather than transferring knowledge across space.

Western science and traditional knowledge. Despite their variations, different forms of knowledge can learn from each other.

Abstract: Cultures from all over the world have developed different views of nature throughout human history. Many of them are rooted in traditional systems of beliefs, which indigenous people use to understand and interpret their biophysical environment (Iaccarino, 2003). These systems of managing the environment constitute an integral part of the cultural identity and social integrity of many indigenous populations. At the same time, their knowledge embodies a wealth of wisdom and experience of nature gained over millennia from direct observations, and transmitted—most often orally—over generations. The importance of this traditional knowledge for the protection of biodiversity and the achievement of sustainable development is slowly being recognized internationally (Gadgil et al , 1993). For example, Article 8 of the Convention on Biological Diversity urges us to “…respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity….” (United Nations, 1992). In addition, traditional or indigenous knowledge has been rediscovered as a model for a healthy interaction with, and use of, the environment, and as a rich source to be tapped into in order to gain new perspectives about the relationship between humans and nature. However, our difficulty in approaching the knowledge from indigenous cultures is already reflected in the way in which we describe and name it. No universal definition is available, and many terms are used to establish what indigenous people know (Berkes, 1993), including traditional knowledge or traditional ecological knowledge, local knowledge, indigenous knowledge or science, folk knowledge, farmers' knowledge, fishers' knowledge and tacit knowledge. Each of these terms carries different implications, and there is an ensuing discussion about which one is the most appropriate. The word ‘traditional’, for example, places the emphasis on the transmission of knowledge along a cultural continuity, but might ignore …

Tacit Knowledge in Expert Coaching: Science or Art?

Abstract: Effective coaching is a mixture of pedagogy and principles of sciences, e.g., motor skill acquisition, sociology, and physiology, often referred to as the science of coaching. Instinctive or intuitive coaching has often been incorrectly viewed as the art of coaching. More important should be how coaches develop knowledge, how they access that knowledge at the appropriate times and how this affects their decision-making process. The study of expert coaches should allow inferences to be drawn from their development and applied to coach education. This article intends to clarify coaching expertise and examine the role of tacit knowledge within coaching. The lack of a clear development pathway for aspiring expert coaches is a clear indicator that the current coach education system needs review. Any effective education system should be based on knowledge and understanding rather than mimicry and the implications for the future of coach education are considered.

How to implement a new strategy without disrupting your organization.

Abstract: Throughout most of modern busi ness history, corporations have attempted to unlock value by matching their structures to their strategies: Centralization by function. Decentralization by product category or geographic region. Matrix organizations that attempt both at once. Virtual organizations. Networked organizations. Velcro organizations. But none of these approaches has worked very well. Restructuring churn is expensive, and new structures often create new organizational problems that are as troublesome as the ones they try to solve. It takes time for employees to adapt to them, they create legacy systems that refuse to die, and a great deal of tacit knowledge gets lost in the process. Given the costs and difficulties involved in finding structural ways to unlock value, it's fair to raise the question: Is structural change the right tool for the job? The answer is usually no, Kaplan and Norton contend. It's far less disruptive to choose an organizational design that works without major conflicts and then design a customized strategic system to align that structure to the strategy. A management system based on the balanced scorecard framework is the best way to align strategy and structure, the authors suggest. Managers can use the tools of the framework to drive their unit's performance: strategy maps to define and communicate the company's value proposition and the scorecard to implement and monitor the strategy. In this article, the originators of the balanced scorecard describe how two hugely different organizations--DuPont and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police-used corporate scorecards and strategy maps organized around strategic themes to realize the enormous value that their portfolios of assets, people, and skills represented. As a result, they did not have to endure a painful series of changes that simply replaced one rigid structure with another.

Minerva Unbound: Knowledge Stocks, Knowledge Flows and New Knowledge Production

Abstract: The rate of regional growth of new knowledge in the field of nanotechnology, as measured by counts of articles and patents in the open-access digital library NanoBank, is shown to be positively affected both by the size of existing regional stocks of recorded knowledge in all scientific fields, and the extent to which tacit knowledge in all fields flows between institutions of different organizational types. The level of federal funding has a large, robust impact on both publication and patenting. The data provide further support for the cumulative advantage model of knowledge production, and for ongoing efforts to institutionalize channels through which cross-organizational collaboration may be achieved.

Tacit knowledge transfer and the knowledge disconnect

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at some of the factors that influence the transfer of tacit knowledge between two product development partners.Design/methodology/approach – Research involved the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data was based on 13 interviews with various individuals, representing three companies, charged with integrating external technology. The quantitative portion of the data was collected through an online survey. The survey was executed by soliciting responses from managers of 39 discreet projects involving various types of external technology integration, representing five different companies.Findings – The paper provides evidence that trust, early involvement, and due diligence influence the extent of meeting technology transfer expectations and tacit knowledge transfer expectations. It also finds that the subject of tacit knowledge transfer, content and process, is poorly understood. While managers and project leaders saw the val...

Sustainable by Design : Explorations in Theory and Practice

Abstract: Introduction * Rethinking Material Culture * Sustainable Development in Context * Design Process and Sustainable Development * Enduring Artefacts and Sustainable Solutions * Reassessing 'Good' Design * Design, Sustainability and the Human Spirit * Fashion and Sustainability * The Application of Theory * Tacit Knowledge in Design * Reframing Design for Sustainability * Time and Design * Creating Objects in a Saturated Culture * Ephemeral Objects for Sustainability * Intellectual and Aesthetic Understandings of Design * Bibliography * Index

Tacit knowledge transfer and the knowledge disconnect

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at some of the factors that influence the transfer of tacit knowledge between two product development partners.Design/methodology/approach – Research involved the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data was based on 13 interviews with various individuals, representing three companies, charged with integrating external technology. The quantitative portion of the data was collected through an online survey. The survey was executed by soliciting responses from managers of 39 discreet projects involving various types of external technology integration, representing five different companies.Findings – The paper provides evidence that trust, early involvement, and due diligence influence the extent of meeting technology transfer expectations and tacit knowledge transfer expectations. It also finds that the subject of tacit knowledge transfer, content and process, is poorly understood. While managers and project leaders saw the val...

The Knowledge-Leveraging Paradox: How to Achieve Scale without Making Knowledge Imitable

Abstract: Tacit knowledge, one of the most promising resources, is among the toughest toleverage. It is important because it is often inimitable. However, increasing its scalemay require codification, which may make it imitable. We explore and illustrate anapproach to applying information technologies to leverage scarce expertise withoutcodifying or transferring knowledge. Such technology may allow individuals to furtherspecialize and generate more tacit knowledge, preserving the strategic propertiesof knowledge while scaling up.

Exploring the dynamics of knowledge integration : Acting and interacting in project teams

Abstract: This article investigates knowledge integration in product development projects. While much previous literature draws attention to the need for clearly specified goals, extensive knowledge sharing and close face-to-face interaction for activity and knowledge integration, alternative explanations are offered. The findings highlight the integrative capacity of individuals' experience and tacit foreknowledge of the stacker artefact, as well as the complementary role of meetings and ad hoc problem solving. The article proposes an iterative model of the individual/collective dynamics involved and calls attention to its economizing potential. More generally, it provides an example of how the issue of knowledge integration may be reformulated into a dynamic perspective, recognizing the intergenerational learning benefits that accrue. The conclusions extend the argument of Zollo and Winter by showing how different task-related learning mechanisms may be combined and obtain their integrative capacity within an iterative process. Copyright © 2006 Sage Publications.

Knowledge management and information technology: can they work in perfect harmony?

Abstract: Purpose – Aims to impart new insights into the role of information technology (IT) in knowledge extraction, capture, distribution and personalization. The paper seeks to pin‐point the strengths and weaknesses of IT in the domain of knowledge management (KM) and to explain why the technology promise remains unfulfilled, as seen by many KM practitioners.Design/methodology/approach – The discussion in this paper is fundamentally based on Stankosky's four KM pillars conceptual framework. Within this framework the authors attempted to shed some light on the IT role and the hidden reasons that make knowledge prominently unreachable via IT.Findings – IT assimilation and representation of knowledge intangibility, dynamism, experience and other humanistic cognitive dimensions remain debatable. The current technology is immature to resolve such problems. For IT to be effective for KM it must shred its bivalent logic and instead learn to operate within an authentic continuum.Originality/value – Knowledge managers ne...

Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics Principled Organizational Knowing and Learning

Abstract: These are three (my favorites) of the 30 knowledge-flow principles that frame Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics, a book by Mark E. Nissen (of course, if you want to know what the other 27 are, you will have to read the book). The premise of the book is that knowledge management (KM) isn’t just about classifying knowledge and building IT-focused systems in order to store, search, retrieve, and visualize it. Rather, KM is more about identifying tacit knowledge and knowledge users and matching them to work processes so that knowledge is directed to those who need to apply it with the result that value is added to the organization. In this view, a knowledge flow is the movement of knowledge from repositories; for tacit knowledge, this is usually people, to those who need to use the knowledge to accomplish some task. To me, these principles reflect the key issues in KM. The first reflects that tacit knowledge is “sticky,” meaning that it is difficult to pass from a knower to someone who needs to learn but doesn’t necessarily possess the context of understanding needed to assimilate the knowledge. The second reflects that knowers can apply knowledge to solving problems and performing tasks that are of value to the organization; it illustrates that knowledge has value. The third reflects the process needed to flow knowledge from a knower to a knowledge user. So what is a knowledge flow? The book defines this as the dynamic movement of knowledge between coordinates Book Review

Eliciting and Representing the Knowledge of Experts

Abstract: Keywords: knowledge elicitation, expert systems, intelligent systems, methodology, Concept Maps, Abstraction-Decompo- sition, critical decision method Introduction The transgenerational transmission of the wisdom of elders via storytelling is as old as humanity itself. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Craft Guilds had well-specified procedures for the transmission of knowledge, and indeed gave us the developmental scale that is still widely used: initiate, novice, apprentice, journeyman, expert, and master (Hoffman, 1998). Based on interviews and observations of the workplace, Denis Diderot (along with 140 others, including Emile Voltaire) created one of the great works of the Enlightenment, the 17 volume Encyclopedie (Diderot, 1751–1772), which explained many “secrets” – the knowledge and procedures in a number of tradecrafts. The emergent science of psychology of the 1700s and 1800s also involved research that, in hindsight, might legitimately be regarded as knowledge elicitation (KE). For instance, a number of studies of reasoning were conducted in the laboratory of Wilhelm Wundt, and some of these involved university professors as the research participants (Militello & Hoffman, forthcoming). In the decade prior to World War I, the stage was set in Europe for applied and industrial psychology; much of that work involved the systematic study of proficient domain practitioners (see Hoffman & Deffenbacher, 1992). The focus of this chapter is on a more recent acceleration of research that involves the elicitation and representation of expert knowledge (and the subsequent use of the representations, in design).

Towards conceptual clarity for ‘tacit knowledge’: a review of empirical studies

Abstract: Tacit knowledge is important for organizations and management, but we lack adequate theory, and find conflicting claims about the concept. A review of empirical studies of tacit knowledge phenomena found the term has been applied to both articulable and inarticulable knowledge. It is suggested that in the interests of clarity use of the term should be limited to the latter. Tacit knowledge appears due to both experience with the particular objects it is applied to, and to general experiences. A solution to the problem of tacit knowledge explication is proposed, and implications of the study for both managerial and academic practice are outlined.

Gaining leverage effects from knowledge modes within corporate incubators

Abstract: This paper analyzes the kind of knowledge that facilitates hatching and leveraging of technologies through the incubation process. Four corporate incubator types can be distinguished according to their source and type of technology: fast-profit incubators, market incubators, leveraging incubators, and in-sourcing incubators. Applying the knowledge-based view of the firm, four modes of mainly tacit knowledge were identified in respect to the different incubator types: (1) entrepreneurial knowledge, (2) organizational knowledge, (3) technological knowledge, and (4) complementary market knowledge. Knowledge strategies include both the leveraging of internal knowledge as well as the in-sourcing of external knowledge for the firm through the corporate incubator. The research is based on an analysis of a European Commission dataset from a benchmarking survey of 77 incubators as well as 52 interviews in 25 large technology-driven corporations in Europe and the United States.

A Kano-CKM model for customer knowledge discovery

Abstract: In the digital economy, knowledge is regarded as an asset in an organization, and knowledge management (KM) implementation supports a company in developing innovative products and making critical management strategic decisions for business excellence. Customer relationship management (CRM) is an information-technology-enabling management tool, which manages the relationship with customers to understand, target, and attract them, with the objective of satisfying and retaining customers. Their synergy potential draws attention in the academic community and has led to the emergence of the customer knowledge management (CKM) model. In a knowledge management domain, an important task is the conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, whereby the well-established Kano's Method has come up to demand and extract customer knowledge for attractive quality creation in new product development projects. As a consequence, this study proposes a Kano-CKM model with a methodology to delineate precisely...

Dynamic Knowledge Patterns to Inform Design: A Field Study of Knowledge Stocks and Flows in an Extreme Organization

Abstract: Knowledge represents a critical resource in the modern enterprise. But it is dynamic and distributed unevenly. Capitalizing on this dynamic resource for enterprise performance depends upon its rapid and reliable flows across people, organizations, locations, and times of application. From a technological perspective, this points immediately to the design of information systems to enhance knowledge flows. The problem is, the design of information systems to enhance knowledge flows requires new understanding. The research described in this paper concentrates on understanding the dynamics of knowledge phenomenologically and on developing and applying techniques for modeling and visualizing dynamic knowledge flows and stocks. We draw key, theoretical concepts from multiple literatures, and we build upon integrative modeling work that composes a parsimonious, multidimensional, analytical framework for representing and visualizing dynamic knowledge. We then conduct field research to learn how this theoretical framework may be used to model knowledge flows in practice. By focusing this empirical work on an extreme organization and processes that involve and rely upon tacit knowledge, we illustrate how dynamic knowledge patterns can inform design in new ways. New chunks of kernel theory deriving from this fieldwork are articulated in terms of a propositional model, which provides a basis for the development of testable design theory hypotheses.