Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisations

Abstract

Business organisations are increasingly viewing knowledge as their most valuable andstrategic resource to remain competitive. Every organisation has both explicit knowledge,referring to carefully analysed and defined knowledge, and tacit knowledge, referringto complex knowledge, difficult to specify and often unrecorded. Tacit knowledgebecomes embedded in an individual's personal expertise and cannot be expressed throughthe normal use of words. But it is precisely the tacit knowledge that often delivers asustainable competitive advantage, as it is this part that competitors have difficultyin replicating. Many organisations are realizing that they must explicitly manage their knowledgeresources and capabilities, and they have initiated a range of knowledge managementprogrammes. An important managerial responsibility resides in managing the knowledgetransfercontext, including the assessment of all knowledge possessed by a firm. Thisnecessitates the conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. This article looks at the tacit knowledge literature and focuses on the existing methods of converting tacit knowledge into implicit knowledge in organisations. A pilot surveyon existing tacit knowledge articulation in a large South African province is discussed.This has pointed towards a more comprehensive research project, with the aim ofproviding a model for tacit knowledge communication strategies in South Africanmulticultural firms.