Difficulties In Handling Tacit Knowledge Rather Than Explicit Knowledge

Before discussing the difficulties of handling tacit knowledge, let's come to know what tacit and explicit knowledge mean.  As discussed in the book "Knowledge Management- Challenges, Solutions and Technologies" by Becerra-Fernandez, Avelino Gonzalez and Rajiv Sabherwal;

Explicit Knowledge: Knowledge that can be expressed in to words and numbers. It can be shared formally and systematically in the form of data, specifications, manuals, drawing, audio and video, computer programs, patents etc. For example, basic principles for stock market analysis contained in a book or manual are considered as explicit knowledge.

Tacit Knowledge: Insights, intuitions and hunches. Tacit knowledge is difficult to express and formalize. Thus it is difficult to be shared. For example, through years of observation on a particular industry, stock market analysts might gain knowledge that help them make recommendations to the investors in the stock market.

As aforementioned definitions for tacit and explicit knowledge, knowledge that has been/ can be articulated or documented or stored is called explicit whereas knowledge that resides in an individual's mind is called as tacit. Tacit knowledge of an individual could directly dependent on one's experiences and practices. In other words, it is more likely to be personal and based on experience and activities. This being the reason for several companies to continually seek ways to retain knowledge  that might be lost because of individual retiring or leaving the organization (Beccerra et al.), such knowledge is critical to handle.



By definition, management of tacit knowledge is managing "People" whereas  management of explicit knowledge is managing "process and information". Therefore managing tacit knowledge can also be defined as planning, organizing and controlling the intellectual capital of an organization. Sharing of knowledge can fundamentally be based on factors such as "People, Culture, Organizational Structure and Technology". Management of people/ intellectual capital/ tacit knowledge can be difficult due to the following reasons;

• One being unable to express/ transfer the knowledge gathered through experience and practice/ activities, in away that can be understood by the receiver.
•  One being unable to acquire/ understand the shared tacit knowledge of another individual due to different level of intelligence, experience and exposure.
• Lack of trust or confidence, i.e. "credibility" on another being capable of understanding and using that knowledge in an appropriate manner.
• Lack of time and conference places/ facilities to share or transfer knowledge between individuals.
• The organizational culture in which it has no encouragement or commitment to share one's knowledge among the rest of the employees. Lack of leadership skills that encourages communication between levels of workforce and open discussion of organizational issues and the solutions implemented.
• Lack of ICT usage which result on level of knowledge sharing and enthusiasm to share/ acquire knowledge.
• Competitions with the other parties of the organizations which can take place due to the knower (the individual perusing the knowledge) trying to protect his/ her status in the organization.