Tacit Knowledge
Dina Maayah
SSN - 7597
Management 311 - Knowledge Management
Short Paper I
Tacit Knowledge
What is Knowledge? “Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody — either by becoming grounds for actions, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different or more effective action.” — Peter F. Drucker in The New Realities. There are several types of knowledge, but this paper is going to specifically discuss Tacit Knowledge. Tacit knowledge is basically personal knowledge. It is defined as the personal knowedge implanted in one’s indiviual experience and involves intangible factors. Such factors include personal belief , one’s perspective and generally the value system. It is also known to be the type of knowledge that is difficult to transfer from one person to another simply by writing it down or verbalising it.
Tacit knowledge in the field of Knowledge Management is regarded as knowledge which is only known by an individual and is usually difficult to articulate into formal language and to express, since it is based on personal intuition, hunches, and insights. Therefore, it must be converted into words, models and numbers that could be grasped, understood and identified or picked up by training or gained via personal experience. One example of tacit knowledge is the notion of language itself. It is not possible to learn a language just by being taught the rules of grammar. A native speaker picks it up at a young age being almost entirely oblivious of the formal grammar which she or he may be taught later. Another example is how to ride a bike; this can only be acquired through personal experimentation. There are two dimensions to tacit knowledge which are:-
The technical dimension: this dimension consists of the informal skills that often come with experience, this falls under the term “know-how” since it is gained after several years of technical experience. An example is the expertise of a craftsman. The skills are obtained over
SSN - 7597
Management 311 - Knowledge Management
Short Paper I
Tacit Knowledge
What is Knowledge? “Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody — either by becoming grounds for actions, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different or more effective action.” — Peter F. Drucker in The New Realities. There are several types of knowledge, but this paper is going to specifically discuss Tacit Knowledge. Tacit knowledge is basically personal knowledge. It is defined as the personal knowedge implanted in one’s indiviual experience and involves intangible factors. Such factors include personal belief , one’s perspective and generally the value system. It is also known to be the type of knowledge that is difficult to transfer from one person to another simply by writing it down or verbalising it.
Tacit knowledge in the field of Knowledge Management is regarded as knowledge which is only known by an individual and is usually difficult to articulate into formal language and to express, since it is based on personal intuition, hunches, and insights. Therefore, it must be converted into words, models and numbers that could be grasped, understood and identified or picked up by training or gained via personal experience. One example of tacit knowledge is the notion of language itself. It is not possible to learn a language just by being taught the rules of grammar. A native speaker picks it up at a young age being almost entirely oblivious of the formal grammar which she or he may be taught later. Another example is how to ride a bike; this can only be acquired through personal experimentation. There are two dimensions to tacit knowledge which are:-
The technical dimension: this dimension consists of the informal skills that often come with experience, this falls under the term “know-how” since it is gained after several years of technical experience. An example is the expertise of a craftsman. The skills are obtained over