Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisations

Business organisations are increasingly viewing knowledge as their most valuable and strategic resource to remain competitive. Every organisation has both explicit knowledge, referring to carefully analysed and defined knowledge, and tacit knowledge, referring to complex knowledge, difficult to spe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: M.M. Hugo-Burrows
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Johannesburg 2022-10-01
Series:Communicare
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1830
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832593812072955904
author M.M. Hugo-Burrows
author_facet M.M. Hugo-Burrows
author_sort M.M. Hugo-Burrows
collection DOAJ
description Business organisations are increasingly viewing knowledge as their most valuable and strategic resource to remain competitive. Every organisation has both explicit knowledge, referring to carefully analysed and defined knowledge, and tacit knowledge, referring to complex knowledge, difficult to specify and often unrecorded. Tacit knowledge becomes embedded in an individual's personal expertise and cannot be expressed through the normal use of words. But it is precisely the tacit knowledge that often delivers a sustainable competitive advantage, as it is this part that competitors have difficulty in replicating. Many organisations are realizing that they must explicitly manage their knowledge resources and capabilities, and they have initiated a range of knowledge management programmes. An important managerial responsibility resides in managing the knowledgetransfer context, including the assessment of all knowledge possessed by a firm. This necessitates 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 survey on existing tacit knowledge articulation in a large South African province is discussed. This has pointed towards a more comprehensive research project, with the aim of providing a model for tacit knowledge communication strategies in South African multicultural firms.
format Article
id doaj-art-f49c1cbdef2b451a94456bbb62e2b8ed
institution Kabale University
issn 0259-0069
2957-7950
language English
publishDate 2022-10-01
publisher University of Johannesburg
record_format Article
series Communicare
spelling doaj-art-f49c1cbdef2b451a94456bbb62e2b8ed2025-01-20T08:49:57ZengUniversity of JohannesburgCommunicare0259-00692957-79502022-10-0121110.36615/jcsa.v21i1.1830Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisationsM.M. Hugo-Burrows0University of Stellenbosch Business organisations are increasingly viewing knowledge as their most valuable and strategic resource to remain competitive. Every organisation has both explicit knowledge, referring to carefully analysed and defined knowledge, and tacit knowledge, referring to complex knowledge, difficult to specify and often unrecorded. Tacit knowledge becomes embedded in an individual's personal expertise and cannot be expressed through the normal use of words. But it is precisely the tacit knowledge that often delivers a sustainable competitive advantage, as it is this part that competitors have difficulty in replicating. Many organisations are realizing that they must explicitly manage their knowledge resources and capabilities, and they have initiated a range of knowledge management programmes. An important managerial responsibility resides in managing the knowledgetransfer context, including the assessment of all knowledge possessed by a firm. This necessitates 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 survey on existing tacit knowledge articulation in a large South African province is discussed. This has pointed towards a more comprehensive research project, with the aim of providing a model for tacit knowledge communication strategies in South African multicultural firms. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1830tacit knowledge into explicit knowledgecommunication challengeBusiness organisationsSouth African multicultural firms
spellingShingle M.M. Hugo-Burrows
Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisations
Communicare
tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge
communication challenge
Business organisations
South African multicultural firms
title Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisations
title_full Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisations
title_fullStr Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisations
title_full_unstemmed Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisations
title_short Converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisations
title_sort converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in organisations
topic tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge
communication challenge
Business organisations
South African multicultural firms
url https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1830
work_keys_str_mv AT mmhugoburrows convertingtacitknowledgeintoexplicitknowledgeinorganisations