Tacit Knowledge: How Do We Interpret It? A Qualitative Study of Knowledge Management in Knowledge-Intensive Firms
(2013) EKHR21 20111Department of Economic History
- Abstract
- Knowledge is an element considered by common consent as strategic for innovation but at the same time it is quite confusing and ambiguous.
New approaches of management are less top-down orientated and more dialogical: they can enhance a successful transfer of tacit knowledge. Small companies interpret and transfer tacit knowledge in a “silent” way, namely the methodologies to transfer it are embedded and not formalized: this can lead to problematic losses of know-how (the skill of an individual to do a particular task) in the future. Their procedures are compared to the ones followed by a company which manages knowledge centrally and which strongly believes in a possible transfer of tacit knowledge through a previous conversion of tacit... (More) - Knowledge is an element considered by common consent as strategic for innovation but at the same time it is quite confusing and ambiguous.
New approaches of management are less top-down orientated and more dialogical: they can enhance a successful transfer of tacit knowledge. Small companies interpret and transfer tacit knowledge in a “silent” way, namely the methodologies to transfer it are embedded and not formalized: this can lead to problematic losses of know-how (the skill of an individual to do a particular task) in the future. Their procedures are compared to the ones followed by a company which manages knowledge centrally and which strongly believes in a possible transfer of tacit knowledge through a previous conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge, according to different methodologies. As well, concerning the transfer of tacit knowledge, IT tools play a determinant role even though there is a rooted skepticism whether in the future they can be a substitute for face-to-face contacts, giving the knowledge a social nature. Finally, the role of intuition in strategic decision making (SDM) is studied, understanding that personal ideas concerning an action often hide individual tacit knowledge and, even though this is linked to power and prestige, knowledge-intensive firms hardly work in order to let personal insights emerge. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3436938
- author
- Del Canale, Marco LU
- supervisor
-
- Lars Coenen LU
- organization
- course
- EKHR21 20111
- year
- 2013
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Knowledge, Tacit/Explicit Knowledge Transfer, Information and Communication Technology, Intuition, Power, Sharing
- language
- English
- id
- 3436938
- date added to LUP
- 2013-01-31 14:42:51
- date last changed
- 2013-01-31 14:42:51
@misc{3436938,
abstract = {{Knowledge is an element considered by common consent as strategic for innovation but at the same time it is quite confusing and ambiguous.
New approaches of management are less top-down orientated and more dialogical: they can enhance a successful transfer of tacit knowledge. Small companies interpret and transfer tacit knowledge in a “silent” way, namely the methodologies to transfer it are embedded and not formalized: this can lead to problematic losses of know-how (the skill of an individual to do a particular task) in the future. Their procedures are compared to the ones followed by a company which manages knowledge centrally and which strongly believes in a possible transfer of tacit knowledge through a previous conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge, according to different methodologies. As well, concerning the transfer of tacit knowledge, IT tools play a determinant role even though there is a rooted skepticism whether in the future they can be a substitute for face-to-face contacts, giving the knowledge a social nature. Finally, the role of intuition in strategic decision making (SDM) is studied, understanding that personal ideas concerning an action often hide individual tacit knowledge and, even though this is linked to power and prestige, knowledge-intensive firms hardly work in order to let personal insights emerge.}},
author = {{Del Canale, Marco}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Tacit Knowledge: How Do We Interpret It? A Qualitative Study of Knowledge Management in Knowledge-Intensive Firms}},
year = {{2013}},
}