TACIT
KNOWLEDGE
Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of
writing it down or verbalizing it. For example, stating to someone that Tooting is in London
is a piece of explicit knowledge that can be written down, transmitted, and
understood by a recipient.
The ability to speak a language, use algebra, or design and use complex equipment requires all sorts of
knowledge that is not always known explicitly, even by expert practitioners,
and which is difficult to explicitly transfer to users
.
While tacit knowledge appears to be
simple, it has far reaching consequences and is not widely understood.
Definition
With tacit knowledge, people are not
often aware of the knowledge they possess or how it can be valuable to others.
Effective transfer of tacit
knowledge generally requires extensive personal contact and trust. Another
example of tacit knowledge is the ability to ride a bicycle.
The formal knowledge of how to ride
a bicycle is that in order to balance, if the bike falls to the left, one
steers to the left. To turn right the rider first steers to the left, and then
when the bike falls right, the rider steers to the right. Knowing this
formally, however, is no help in riding a bicycle, and few riders are in fact
aware of this.
Tacit knowledge is not easily
shared. It involves learning and skill, but not in a way that can be written
down. Tacit knowledge consists often of habits and culture that we do not
recognize in ourselves. In the field of knowledge
management, the concept of tacit knowledge
refers to a knowledge possessed only by an individual and difficult to
communicate to others via words and symbols. Knowledge that is easy to
communicate is called explicit knowledge.
Tacit knowledge has been described
as
“know-how” – Knowledge, as
opposed to
“know-what” (facts),
“know-why”
(science), or
“know-who”
(networking).
It involves learning and skill but
not in a way that can be written down. The process of transforming tacit
knowledge into explicit or specifiable knowledge is known as
1.
Codification,
2.
Articulation, or
3.
Specification.
The tacit aspects of knowledge are
those that cannot be codified, but can only be transmitted via training or
gained through personal experience.
"others know it, but you don't know
it." -sherwin que
A chief practice of technological
development is the codification of tacit knowledge into explicit programmed operations
so that processes previously requiring skilled employees can be automated for
greater efficiency and consistency at lower cost.
Such codification involves
mechanically replicating the performance of persons who possess relevant tacit
knowledge; in doing so, however, the ability of the skilled practitioner to
innovate and adapt to unforeseen circumstances based on the tacit
"feel" of the situation is often lost.
The technical remedy is to attempt
to substitute brute-force methods capitalizing on the computing power of a
system, such as those that enable a supercomputer programmed to
"play" chess against a grandmaster whose tacit knowledge of the game
is broad and deep.
Tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit
knowledge.
In that model tacit knowledge is
presented variously as uncodifiable and codifiable --"transforming tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge is known as
codification".
This ambiguity is common in the
knowledge management literature.
Examples
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 almost
entirely unaware of the formal grammar which they may be taught later.
1] Laser was designed in America and
the idea, with specific assistance from the designers, was gradually propagated
to various other universities world-wide. However, in the early days, even when
specific instructions were sent, other labs failed to replicate the laser, it
only being made to work in each case following a visit to or from the
originating lab or very close contact and dialogue. It became clear that the originators
while they clearly could make the laser work did not know exactly what it was
they were doing to make it work and so could not articulate or specify it by
means of monologue articles and specifications. But a cooperative process of
dialogue enabled the tacit knowledge to be transferred.
2] Another example is the Bessemer
steel process — Bessemer sold a patent
for his advanced steel making process and was sued by the purchasers who
couldn't get it to work. In the end Bessemer set up his own steel company
because he knew how to do it, even though he could not convey it to his patent
users. Bessemer's company became one of the largest in the world and changed
the face of steel making.
As apprentices learn the craft of
their masters through observation, imitation, and practice, so do employees of
a firm learn new skills through on-the-job training.
When Matsushita started developing
its automatic home bread-making machine in 1985, an early problem was how to
mechanize the dough-kneading process, a process that takes a master baker years
of practice to perfect. To learn this tacit knowledge, a member of the software
development team, Ikuko Tanaka, decided to volunteer herself as an apprentice
to the head baker of the Osaka International Hotel, who was reputed to produce
the area’s best bread. After a period of imitation and practice, one day she
observed that the baker was not only stretching but also twisting the dough in a
particular fashion (“twisting stretch”), which turned out to be the secret for
making tasty bread. The Matsushita home bakery team drew together eleven
members from completely different specializations and cultures: product
planning, mechanical engineering, control systems, and software development.
The “twisting stretch” motion was finally materialized in a prototype after a
year of iterative experimentation by the engineers and team members working
closely together, combining their explicit knowledge. For example, the
engineers added ribs to the inside of the dough case in order to hold the dough
better as it is being churned. Another team member suggested a method (later
patented) to add yeast at a later stage in the process, thereby preventing the
yeast from over-fermenting in high temperatures .
