Tacit Knowledge Utilization Research Articles

Managing knowledge and sustainability in resource constrained disaster environments

AbstractOrganizations use both tangible and intangible resources for their existence to achieve sustainable development goals. Organizational knowledge mainly comprises of tacit knowledge held by employees. It becomes more critical when the situations are unpredictable, for example in rescue/disaster projects involving human lives at risk. Tacit knowledge utilization has been understudied particularly in such environments bounded by resource constraint and sustainability issues. This qualitative research attempts to fill this gap by collecting data from the knowledge workers in a large public sector non‐profit rescue organization. The study reveals various individual level, group level, organizational level, community level, and situational level factors, which impact the tacit knowledge utilization of rescue workers to properly execute emergency life threatening rescue operations and sustainability issues.

Leveraging Tacit Knowledge for Teacher Performance in Vocational Schools After-Break

Purpose – The primary objective of this study is to examine the utility of tacit knowledge in enhancing the performance of vocational school teachers who have experienced a career hiatus. Additionally, it seeks to investigate strategies for vocational schools to provide improved support to their teachers in leveraging tacit knowledge to enhance performance, particularly through the promotion of work engagement. Furthermore, the study aims to present a framework for vocational school managers, facilitating the explicit articulation of teachers' tacit knowledge, thereby contributing to the creation and dissemination of new knowledge through effective knowledge management. Design/methodology/approach – In order to gather data for this research, an explanatory survey methodology is employed, with the study's focus directed towards vocational education teachers in the region of West Java. A meticulously chosen sample size of 360 teachers is selected, guided by specific experience criteria and employment within the foundation overseeing the Private vocational school. Structural equation modeling (SEM) serves as the chosen method for hypothesis testing in this study. Findings – This study finds that teacher work engagement serves as a crucial mediator in the relationship between tacit knowledge and performance among vocational school teachers. It is observed that increased tacit knowledge may unexpectedly lead to reduced teacher performance, emphasizing the complexity of this relationship. Tacit knowledge is identified as a valuable resource for addressing workplace demands within vocational education. Moreover, it exerts a significant influence on the motivation process of teachers, subsequently impacting their engagement and overall performance. Interestingly, engagement plays a mitigating role, counteracting the negative effects of suboptimal tacit knowledge utilization by teachers, allowing them to achieve better performance, although not always reaching their full potential based on their rich experiences. Consequently, work engagement emerges as a key mediator, facilitating the translation of tacit knowledge into effective teaching outcomes. These findings shed light on the intricate dynamics of tacit knowledge, engagement, and performance in vocational education, providing valuable insights for educators and policymakers. Originality/value – The originality of this research manifests in its concentrated exploration of the application of tacit knowledge to enhance the performance of vocational school teachers, particularly those who have taken a hiatus in their careers. Additionally, the study introduces a fresh perspective to the realm of vocational education by highlighting the potential outcomes of making teachers' tacit knowledge explicit, with a particular emphasis on work engagement and knowledge management. This novel approach contributes valuable insights to the field, paving the way for further exploration and development.

How to utilize tacit knowledge in health organizations: An Iranian perspective.

Background: Studies show that 90% of an organization’s knowledge is embedded and synthesized in its employees’ minds. Thus, when employees leave the organization or their positions change, their valuable knowledge, skills, and experiences are lost, however, if used properly, tacit knowledge can be a source of innovation and competitive advantage in an organization. This study aimed at exploring the methods for sharing and utilizing tacit knowledge in health organizations. Methods: In this study, qualitative approach was adopted to explore ways of utilizing tacit knowledge in health organizations. Tacit knowledge experts, who had published at least one relevant article, conducted 17 individual and 2 group interviews. Purposeful sampling was used to select the participants. Methods for sharing and utilizing tacit knowledge were explored by holding in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The results were summarized into 5 categories and 18 themes. The categories included ‘identification of different dimensions of organizational knowledge’, ‘prerequisites of tacit knowledge utilization’, ‘defining the process of tacit knowledge utilization’, ‘converting tacit to explicit knowledge’, and ‘converting tacit to tacit knowledge’. Participants believed that the process of converting tacit to explicit knowledge was a cyclical process that included the understanding the existing situation and detecting knowledge entry points, identifying knowledge items and harvesting them, assessment, codification, and standardization, entry into knowledge repository, and updating. Conclusion: Our results revealed that health organizations need the prerequisites of tacit knowledge sharing to acquire the capacity to utilize this kind of knowledge. Because the themes extracted in this study are rarely used in health organizations, the results will be helpful in guiding the development of knowledge utilization strategies and planning in these organizations.

日本型クリエイティブ・サービスの価値共創モデル : 暗黙的情報活用に基づく価値共創モデルの発展的整理( サービスイノベーションの新展開)

日本型クリエイティブ・サービスの価値共創モデル : 暗黙的情報活用に基づく価値共創モデルの発展的整理( サービスイノベーションの新展開)

Evolution of Knowledge Management in Business

While investigating the growth of knowledge management in academic literature and in consultancy firms Wilson (2002) in his article “The nonsense of knowledge management”, argues that the fields of information science and information systems, should clearly distinguish between the term “information” and “knowledge” in order to assure their respective importance within organizations.The purpose of this article is to analyze the evolution of the knowledge management as a field of study that clearly differentiates itself from the information system. It investigates the integration of technology in knowledge creation and identifies progress made in KM on the subject of business using information system with the successful utilization of tacit knowledge concepts.The study consists of a systemic review of articles on knowledge management from Web of Science and Esearch databases since 2003. The study used three search strings “knowledge management”, “knowledge management” and “tacit”, and “knowledge management” and “explicit”. This study may not have covered all articles and reports in KM. Yet, based on the chosen research methodology, it seems reasonable to assume that the review process covered a large share of the studies available.The literature concerning the evolution of the Knowledge Management (KM) has highlighted that KM as a strategy and tool is now more in line with the basic definition of knowledge and wisdom. The advancement in Information Technology (IT), has supported knowledge capture process by utilizing the human dimension of KM that emphasize on knowledge context. The main contribution of this study is to confirm the close relationship of dependency of IT and KM.

Automated Discovery and Utilization of Tacit Knowledge in Facility Layout Planning and Optimization

This paper puts forth a novel methodology for facilities layout planning and optimization, where the fitness evaluation of layout alternatives is automatically performed by employing an artificial neural network trained to preferences of the domain experts. The inherently uncertain, unstructured, and often tacit nature of facilities layout design preferences, constraints, and fitness objectives demands the use of domain experts for the fitness evaluation of layout alternatives, which is a resource-intensive process. Indeed, the usual unavailability of domain experts in a timely or economical manner highlights the need for resorting to the use of some intelligent and effective automation technique in this important domain. In order to test the key novel ingredient of the proposed approach, a variety of artificial neural networks are trained on a large data set containing both qualitative and quantitative fitness values of layout alternatives, as well as subjective rankings by a seasoned domain expert utilizing the knowledge of the application domain. Simulation results strongly support the viability of the proposed idea. Such an automated approach to fitness evaluations of layout alternatives is expected to significantly increase the efficacy and efficiency of the overall facilities layout planning process. Moreover, such an approach would spur the much sought for research in decision support and expert systems in layout planning. As such, the paper also provides some very interesting and promising, albeit challenging, future research directions.

Knowledge creation and utilization in project teams

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the knowledge processes that interplay in the social construction and appropriation of knowledge and to test these constructs empirically in project teams.Design/methodology/approach– Literature research and quantitative survey were used. The research identified project success, faster completion times, operational efficiency, innovation and generation of new knowledge as dominating project management expectations in the past ten years. It studied how these projects construct and appropriate knowledge within project teams to achieve these five objectives. Using a quantitative approach, data were sought from 1,000 respondents out of a population of 10,000 from 11 project management areas in eight world regions to test the conceptual model in real-world scenarios. The data gathered were analyzed using quantitative analysis tools and techniques such as reliability, correlation and regression.Findings– There is a lingering difficulty within organizations on how to translate tacit knowledge into action. The transfer and utilization of tacit knowledge was shown to be embedded and nested within relationships. Innovation in projects was found to be mostly linked to replication and codification of knowledge (explicit dimension) as opposed to interpretation and assimilation (tacit dimension). Arriving at a mutual interpretation of project details and requirements does not depend on canonical (formal documentation) methods but mostly on non-canonical (informal) and relational processes embedded within the team.Originality/value– This work studies, in empirical and geographical detail, the social interplay of knowledge and provided evidence relative to the appropriation of knowledge in the project organizational form, which can be extrapolated to wider contexts. The work scoped the inter-relational nature of knowledge and provided further evidence on the nebulous nature of tacit/intangible knowledge. It also proved further that organizations mostly rely on explicit knowledge to drive organizational results, as it is easily actionable and measurable.

Quantitative Model of Tacit Knowledge Estimation for Pharmaceutical Industry

It is generally agreed that successful firms need to utilize all of their assets properly in order to gain a competitive advantage. However, little attention has been paid in business to proper utilization of tacit knowledge, a subset of intangible assets, because no specialized attempt has been made to quantify it. Once a value has been assigned to an asset, it is more easily utilized in the proper way. This paper analyzes the use of tacit knowledge in pharmaceutical industry, presents a graphical model of tacit knowledge, and finally presents and uses a simplified mathematical model that could be useful in quantifying tacit knowledge. The mathematical model was applied in the empirical study of multi-billion dollar acquisition of Genentech by Hoffman La-Roche AG. The model gives a good estimation of the value of the tacit knowledge contained in the firm, which is an important contribution to the field of finance. The quantification of tacit knowledge could be extremely beneficial for managers of pharmaceutical firms who have extremely high levels of tacit knowledge in the form of knowledge workers. By quantifying tacit knowledge, managers can get a better understanding of the real value of their firm or of the value of a firm that may be a target for acquisition. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.25.1.5083

Tacit knowledge utilization in Thai construction projects

PurposeTacit knowledge, which is developed through experience, is used by Thai construction managers to perform their tasks and deliver project performance. The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the utilization of tacit knowledge in executing construction projects.Design/methodology/approachThe study is qualitative in nature and carried out through a case study approach. Empirical evidence was collected from three construction companies, each handling projects of a diverse nature of project characteristics and knowledge management styles.FindingsThe main findings particularly arise from the following four factors that were observed from on‐site observations of work practice and interviews: flexible and adaptable thinking due to dynamic products and processes in the construction project; problem‐solving and heuristics that facilitate a novelistic, re‐combination of knowledge; knowledge networks amongst individuals that support and transfer non‐codified knowledge; and management conditions conducive to knowledge creation. These four factors are inherently embedded in Thai construction management practices for creativity and competitiveness.Originality/valueThe study is an examination of the contributions actually made by each aspect of a knowledge‐management oriented project, and identification of the lessons learned therein and new improved practices. These are thereafter captured and incorporated into the next learning cycle in order to facilitate a steady evolution for best practices.

Utilizing multi‐dimensionality in the workplace: a meta‐study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe and compare various theoretical models of decision making such as classical rational decision making, left‐brain/right‐brain dominance decision making, utilization of tacit knowledge in decision making, utilization of intuition in decision making, utilization of emotional intelligence in decision making, a systems approach to decision making, and spirit‐based decision making.Design/methodology/approachStudies on different modalities of decision making are reviewed, discussed, and compared.FindingsThe traditional assumption of the optimality of rational decision making may be improved by including other dimensions of decision making. It is posited that organizations that encourage and support multi‐dimensional decision making, which utilizes the rational, intuitional, emotional and spiritual aspects of the whole person, develop better management–employee relations, more creative problem solving, and better market place performance.Research limitations/implicationsDevelopment and testing of instruments that measure multi‐dimensional decision making would extend the scope of this study.Originality/valueThis paper compares different styles of decision making to assist the manager in making optimal decisions. By expanding on the traditional rational decision making model to include other dimensions of decision‐making, managers are able to capture additional information in framing their decisions.

Dynamic Knowledge Map: reusing experts' tacit knowledge in the AEC industry

Much knowledge in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is experience-based and tacit. Nevertheless, the typical strategy for knowledge management is focused on computer-based approaches for capturing and disseminating explicit knowledge. AEC firms have been successful at collecting and storing explicit information in enterprise databases, but they are poor at knowledge retrieval and exchange. Consequently, AEC professionals find it difficult to reuse core experts' knowledge for highly knowledge-intensive AEC activities. This situation calls for a method for disseminating tacit knowledge from experts' brains to achieve higher quality AEC projects. The primary purpose of this paper is to set a theoretical foundation for clarifying the contribution of experts' tacit knowledge in the AEC industry. The secondary purpose is to describe the concept for prototype software, Dynamic Knowledge Map, that can assist in the reuse of experts' tacit knowledge. Dynamic Knowledge Map is a Web-based knowledge navigator that searches for experts and facilitates communication with those experts by using internet technology. Higher performance levels theoretically can be achieved while accelerating the knowledge transfer processes. Future research will test the suitability of Dynamic Knowledge Map for tacit knowledge utilization in AEC organizations.

Evaluation of tacit knowledge utilization in work units

This article introduces a model with the help of which the management of businesses can evaluate what kind of a role tacit knowledge plays in their organizations. At the beginning of the article basic elements from which an individual’s competence is derived are described. After that the structure of the model is discussed. Four different systems, namely memory, communication, motivational, and situational systems, which all include numerous factors that affect tacit knowledge utilization in organizations are illustrated. The article ends with the introduction of the model and a brief speculation about its application possibilities in different work units.