Tacit Knowledge

TACIT KNOWLEDGE

Assignment 2

By Group 9-

What is Tacit Knowledge?

Tacit knowledge is the hidden knowledge within a firm. It is not available in file-cabinets, theories or concepts but in experiences and skills of human beings. This makes it extremely hard to codify or directly articulate. It is difficult to capture or share them and thus the transfer process is slow, uncertain and often costly. Tacit knowledge may also be embedded in the things that have been produced by people. Examples of tacit knowledge include swimming, playing football etc.

Case of knowledge transfers that faces the challenges of large components of tacit knowledge embedded in human resources.

The human element is a critical part in the development of a successful knowledge transfer system. Experiences, skills and judgements of an individual form a part of their work practices. Tacit knowledge is embedded in such work practices and can be transferred to others through personal connections. This makes the transfer of knowledge extremely difficult. An example of this would be the case of Australian Film Industry (AFI).

Australian Films are a part of a conglomerated industry and follow the footsteps of Hollywood. In the 1940s, many of these film companies began to break up and formed specialized enterprises that would carry out work on a project-by-project basis to produce films. They would disband and look for other opportunities once the project was complete.

As a result of this structural change in the industry, a new type of employees emerged know as the “casual workers” (Fairfax, 2003). They would work from one film to another in search of experience and money and as a result they had no stable employment and no guarantee of income (Arthur & Defillippi, 1998). The new working environment resulted in constant and rapid changes in the industry. The firms now operated in a turbulent organizational environment context (Emery & Trist, 1965) where workers constantly faced...