Tacit Knowledge vs Explicit Knowledge

Introduction

There are two major types of Knowledge namely:

1. Explicit Knowledge

2. Tacit Knowledge

Another form of knowledge is implicit knowledge. One of objectives of knowledge management is to convert tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

What is Explicit Knowledge?

• Explicit knowledge is knowledge that has been expressed into words and numbers.

What is Tacit Knowledge?

• Tacit knowledge includes insights, intuitions, and hunches

What is Implicit Knowledge?

• Implicit knowledge is the application of explicit knowledge or knowledge that is gained through incidental activities, or without awareness that learning is occurring.

• Can be viewed as explicit knowledge that hasn’t yet been documented.

• Skills that can be transferred from one job to another are implicit.

Characteristics

Explicit Knowledge

Explicit knowledge has the following characteristics:

1. Easier to document and share

2. Easier to replicate

3. Contribute to efficiency

Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge has the following characteristics:

1. Difficult to articulate

2. Difficult to transfer

3. Skills and Experience

4. Leads to Competency

5. More likely to be personal and based on individual experiences and activities

2.3. Implicit Knowledge

1. Unformalized knowledge

2. For implicit knowledge to become explicit knowledge, it’s just a matter of recording the knowledge verbatim.

3. Could be called “knowledge under construction”

4. Usually an unconscious skill.

The diagram below is a high level illustration of Tacit, Implicit and explicit knowledge from Nickols (2012):

Practical Examples

Explicit Knowledge

Work Perspective

1. Databases

2. Memos

3. Guides

4. Policies such as HR, Compliancy, Device Usage

5. White papers

6. Competitor analysis

7. Code of conduct

8. Staff details - skills, experience, location

9. List of potential clients

10. List of customer experiences and suggestions

Study Perspective

1. Text Books

2. Course Outlines

3. Registration process

4. Process Models

5. Research Literature and theoretical frameworks

6. Attendance Registers

7. Process flows

8. Fee payments

9. Academic calendar

Life Perspective

1. Completing a template e.g. doctors' forms

2. Viewing product specials

3. Terms and conditions of products and services

4. Ingredients on food packages

Tacit Knowledge

Work Perspective

1. The amount of information required to write a Business Requirements Specification in order to log it with various areas.

2. Articulating requirements in a manner that is meaningful and understood by both business and technology teams.

3. Soft skills e.g. when requesting information from a stakeholder, how to engage with senior stakeholders etc.

4. Remote meeting etiquette

   • muting of mics during meetings

   • raising your hand to ask/provide input

5. When scheduling a meeting, ensure that all stakeholders are accommodated regardless of location e.g. with companies moving to blended working routines where some employees come to the offices on certain days whilst others are working completely remotely or have a different schedule.

6. Having the knowledge of which systems/areas will be impacted when a new project is logged based off previous experience and systems/areas that may be missed

7. Informal business processes such as how to implement a change, or log a small project - impacts a specific team - and how work creation commences in the area

Study Perspective

1. A developer using comments in their code e.g. adding comments so that when the code is reviewed by a moderator, it would assist in understanding the logic and improve your mark.

2. Creating a conceptual framework by combining various theoretical framework in a logical manner for a research paper.

3. Sharing gut feelings on what topic to select for a literature review or presentation based off previous experience which exposed you to topics where literature was scarce leading to difficulties in completing the research within the specified period.

Life Perspective

1. Cooking like your gran - you have the recipe and you could still have that feeling something is missing. Your gran may have a feeling of how much of each ingredient is required or what the consistency of a mixture should be.

2. Determining when it is safe to overtake a car based as "safe" is determined by an individual's driving experience, knowledge of the car, ability to judge distance etc.

3. Drawing/ painting.

4. Cutting hair.

Implicit Knowledge

1. Knowing how to walk, run, ride a bicycle, or swim. Also see Procedural Knowledge and Conceptual Knowledge.

2. Best practices and skills that are transferable from job to job

   • A team member asking how to perform a task which has not yet been documented which may lead to a thoughtful process on how to complete the task. The team member that provided the advice used their implicit knowledge to advise on the way forward.

3. Peer learning programs like pair programming where informal knowledge is shared.

Converting Tacit Knowledge to Explicit Knowledge

Converting Tacit Knowledge to explicit is no easy task. There are many KM models that enable this process which are discussed in the KM Models section. The SECI Model is one of most common models to convert knowledge.

Benefits of Converting Knowledge

1. Communicate Organizational Knowledge More Effectively

   • Relying on team members to share knowledge with others may not always occur and if it does occur, you cannot guarantee it will be of a high quality and whether all the knowledge was shared.

   • Working remotely also reduced the coffee chats or water cooler chats where employees gained knowledge

   • Enables effective onboarding of new employees

   • Allows resources to focus on other activities rather than sharing knowledge multiple times instead of once for the KM initiative.

2. Differentiate Your Company from Your Competitors

   • Better equipped employees lead to better served customers e.g. when calling into a call centre for assistance, they may redirect you to another agent who in turn may redirect you again as the knowledge has not been shared across the entire call centre

   • Enables your users to self-assist e.g. using a FAQ or how to videos.

3. Gain Knowledge Capital and Retain Organizational Knowledge

   • Teams that document their knowledge know what they are doing as they are close enough to the detail and understand it well enough to package it into a format that can be consumed by others. Therefore, retaining knowledge.

   • The retained knowledge helps other employees perform a job function after an employee has resigned

4. Increased Productivity & Organizational Innovation

   • When best practices are shared and adopted, performance levels will increase as past mistakes should no longer occur and known blockers can be overcome.

   • Knowledge from previous experience will guide the organization in terms of what worked and what did not, therefore, spending less effort and time on tasks that are unfruitful.

   • Knowledge Sharing allows others to view ideas and experiences from different perspectives which can lead to "aha moments" and innovative thinking.

Challenges with Converting knowledge

Articulation

• Explaining an experience or a feeling/ intuition is difficult and individuals with the tacit knowledge may convey it incorrectly which can lead to incorrect knowledge being recorded and distributed.

Time consuming

• Requires a lot of engagement with the individual that holds the tacit knowledge

• SME availability becomes a challenge especially if KM is not prioritized in the organization

Cultural

• Individuals may not trust the process or see it as a way to reduce their value to the company

See general KM challenges

Examples of Converting Tacit Knowledge to Explicit Knowledge

Personally, I have had to convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge in the following instances:

1. Teaching an individual how to tie their shoe lace or fold their pocket square using pictures

2. Explaining your feelings experienced during an event e.g. explaining the cause of exhilaration or sadness

3. Sharing an opinion on a topic e.g. typing a message to someone explaining your views on how an activity should be performed.

Professionally, I converted tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge for the following scenarios:

1. Handover documentation to prevent knowledge loss and continuation of business process

2. Lessons learned on a project/task that has been completed e.g. marketing campaigns, deployed projects in the form of Post Implementation Review (PIR).

3. Walkthroughs of a process to explain the entire value chain of the process so that stakeholders understand downstream impacts and why a change may have adverse impacts in a presentation

4. Coaching newcomers to the organization on how to deal with conflict based of experience in a presentation format.