Tacit to explicit: an interplay shaping organization knowledge

Abstract

PurposeAims to study the role tacit knowledge plays in shaping the knowledge base of the knowledge‐intensive growing organizations using the storytelling method.Design/methodology/approachStories were collected from eight human resource professionals working in eight different knowledge‐intensive growing organizations in New Zealand. Interviews containing loosely structured questions were used for collecting stories. These stories were deconstructed on the knowledge grid. This grid attempted to depict a complex interplay of tacit knowledge with the important subsystems (referred to as threads) of organization.FindingsTacit knowledge seemed to be a major concern for the human resource professionals in knowledge‐intensive growing organizations. It plays a significant role in shaping the knowledge base of an organization by interacting with the important subsystems of organization.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a need to study ways of reducing the risk of being dependent on tacit knowledge of a few employees. Technology is needed that would be able to effectively capture the multidimensional interplay of tacit knowledge with important subsystems of organization.Practical implicationsKnowledge being a strategic input in knowledge‐intensive growing organizations, there is a need to address major concerns related to tacit knowledge that these organizations specifically face due to their knowledge‐intensive nature.Originality/valueTacit knowledge interacts with the important subsystems of an organization, thereby shaping its knowledge base. This paper attempts to demonstrate that tacit knowledge operates in multidimensional contexts.