Tacit Knowledge Sharing in Public Sector Departments in Kenya
Author(s)
Susan Njeri Wamitu
Affiliation(s)
Department of Business, School of Business and Economics, Kenya Methodist University, Nyeri Campus, Nyeri, Kenya.
Department of Business, School of Business and Economics, Kenya Methodist University, Nyeri Campus, Nyeri, Kenya.
ABSTRACT
Organizational employees know valuable information but sharing that information throughout the organization is a challenge. Organizational employees need to share problems, experiences, insights, templates, tools and best practices. Many organizations concentrate on hard technology as the only way to gain competitive advantage and ignore the very crucial strategy that gives it a competitive edge. Tacit knowledge well guarded in the employee’s mind is the only non-imitable organizational resource (Senge, P., 1990) [1]. Knowledge focus is the third wave of human socio-economic development, the first having been the agricultural age with wealth being defined as ownership of land and the second being the industrial age where wealth is based on ownership of capital e.g. factories. In the knowledge age, wealth is based upon the ownership of knowledge and the ability to use, create and use it to improve goods and services .This review wishes to expose the challenges of functional boundaries, communication, motivation and organizational culture on tacit knowledge sharing in Kenya public sector organizations. The review will be guided by the following theories: constructivism theory that advocates for creation of knowledge through individual constructs, self efficacy theory where persons believe on their ability to organize and execute courses of action necessary to achieve a goal and Nonaka’s model of knowledge creation which demonstrates knowledge dynamics using the SECI model. The review will also look at other researcher’s literature and display the relationship between tacit knowledge sharing and the four variables.
Organizational employees know valuable information but sharing that information throughout the organization is a challenge. Organizational employees need to share problems, experiences, insights, templates, tools and best practices. Many organizations concentrate on hard technology as the only way to gain competitive advantage and ignore the very crucial strategy that gives it a competitive edge. Tacit knowledge well guarded in the employee’s mind is the only non-imitable organizational resource (Senge, P., 1990) [1]. Knowledge focus is the third wave of human socio-economic development, the first having been the agricultural age with wealth being defined as ownership of land and the second being the industrial age where wealth is based on ownership of capital e.g. factories. In the knowledge age, wealth is based upon the ownership of knowledge and the ability to use, create and use it to improve goods and services .This review wishes to expose the challenges of functional boundaries, communication, motivation and organizational culture on tacit knowledge sharing in Kenya public sector organizations. The review will be guided by the following theories: constructivism theory that advocates for creation of knowledge through individual constructs, self efficacy theory where persons believe on their ability to organize and execute courses of action necessary to achieve a goal and Nonaka’s model of knowledge creation which demonstrates knowledge dynamics using the SECI model. The review will also look at other researcher’s literature and display the relationship between tacit knowledge sharing and the four variables.
Cite this paper
Wamitu, S. (2015) Tacit Knowledge Sharing in Public Sector Departments in Kenya. Open Journal of Business and Management, 3, 109-118. doi: 10.4236/ojbm.2015.31011.
Wamitu, S. (2015) Tacit Knowledge Sharing in Public Sector Departments in Kenya. Open Journal of Business and Management, 3, 109-118. doi: 10.4236/ojbm.2015.31011.
References
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20159632 [33] Kleiner, A. and Roth, G. (1997) How to Make Experience Your Company’s Best Teacher. Harvard Business Review, 75, 172-177. [34] Ardichvili, A., Page, V. and Wentling, T. (2003) Motivation and Barriers to Participation in Virtual Knowledge Sharing Communities of Practice. Journal of Knowledge Management, 7, 64-77.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13673270310463626 [35] Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803932 [36] Dyer, J.H. and Noboeka, K. (2001) Creating and Managing a High Performance Knowledge Sharing Network: The Toyota Case. Strategic Management Journal, 21, 345-368. [37] Alavi, M. and Leidner, D. (2001) Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues. MIS Quarterly, 25, 107-136.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3250961 [38] Mazutis, D. and Slawinski, N. (2008) Leading Organizational Learning through Authentic Dialogue. Management Learning, 39, 437-456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350507608093713 [39] Chaffey, D. and Wood, S. (2005) Business Information Management: Improving Performance Using Information. Pearson Education Ltd., Upper Saddle River. [40] Dixon, M. (1999) The Organizational Learning Cycle: How Can We Learn Collectively. Gower Publishing Ltd., Hampshire. [41] Faulkner, W., Senker, J. and Velho, L. (1995) Knowledge Frontiers: Public Sector Research and Industrial Innovation in Biotechnology, Engineering Ceramics and Parallel Computing. Oxford University Press, Oxford. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198288336.001.0001 [42] Schwarzwalder, R. (1999) Librarians as Knowledge Management Agents. Econtent, 22, 63-65. [43] Zack, M. (1999) Managing Codified Knowledge. Sloan Management Review, 40, 45-58.
[1] Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Doubleday Business, London. [2] Drucker, P. (1999) Knowledge-Worker Productivity: The Biggest Challenge. California Management Review, 41, 79-94. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/41165987 [3] Strassmann, P. (1985) Information Pay Off: The Transformation of Work in the Electronic Age. The Free Press, New York. [4] Everett, R. (1970) Diffusion of Innovation: Critical Perspective. Sage, Beverly Hills. [5] Allen, T.J.G. (2006) The Organization Architecture of Innovation: Managing the Flow of Technology. Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd., Oxford, 152. [6] Sakaiya, T. (1999) The Knowledge-Value Revolution, or, a History of the Future. Kodansha America, Inc., New York. [7] Senge, P., et al. (1994) The Fifth Discipline Field Book Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. Currency Doubleday, New York. [8] Augus, J. and Jeeto, P. (1998) Knowledge Management: Great Concept…..But What Is It? Information Week, No. 673, 58-70. [9] Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995) The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Oxford University Press, New York. [10] Dougherty, V. (1999) Knowledge about People, not Databases. Industrial and Commercial Training, 31, 262-266. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197859910301962 [11] Polanyi, M. (1962) Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. Psychology Press, Location. [12] Kogut, B. and Zander, U. (1992) Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology. Organization Science, 3, 383-397. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.3.3.383 [13] Nonaka, I. (1994) A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation. Organization Science, 5, 14-37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.5.1.14 [14] Lee, H. (2000) Knowledge Management Enablers, Processes, and Organizational Performance: An Integration and Empirical Examination. Journal of Management Information Systems, 20, 179-228. [15] Polanyi, M. (1969) Knowing and Being. Chicago University Press, Chicago. [16] Dewey, J. (2009) Between Pragmatism and Constructivism. Fordham, American Philosophy, Fordham University Press, Enhancing Professionalization of Human Resource Management Managers’ Network (APS-HRMnet), Bronx. [17] Kolb, D. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs. [18] Van Meter, P. and Stevens, R.J. (2000) The Role of Theory in the Study of Peer Collaboration. Journal of Experimental Education, 69, 113-129. [19] Greeno, J., Collins, A. and Resnick, L. (1996) Cognition and Learning. In: Calfree, R. and Berliner, D., Eds., Handbook of Educational Psychology, Macmillan, New York, 15-46. [20] Szulanski, G. (1996) Exploring Internal Stickiness: Impediments to the Transfer of Best Practice within Firms. Strategic Management Journal, 17, 27-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250171105 [21] Lesser, L. and Storck, J. (2001) Communities of Practice and Organizational Performance. IBM Systems Journal, 40, 831-841. [22] Argote, L. and Ingram, P. (2000) Knowledge Transfer: A Basis for Competitive Advantage in Firms. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 82, 150-169. [23] Argote, L. (1999) Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining, and Transferring Knowledge. Khiwer Academic Publishers, Norwell. [24] Powell, W., Koput, K.W. and Smith-Doerr, L. (1996) Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 116-145.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393988 [25] Baum, J. and Ingram, P. (1998) Survival-Enhancing Learning in the Manhattan Hotel Industry, 1898-1980. Management Science, 44, 996-1016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.44.7.996 [26] Gau, W.-B. (2011) A Study of Tacit Knowledge Management in the Public Sector. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, 12. [27] Finger, M. and Brand, S.B. (1999) The Concept of the “Learning Organization” Applied to the Transformation of the Public Sector: Conceptual Contributions for Theory Development. In: Easterby-Smith, M., Araujo, L. and Burgoyne, J., Eds., Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization: Developments in Theory and Practice, Sage, London. [28] Blackler, F. (1995) Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations: An Overview and Interpretation. Organization Studies, 16, 1021-1046. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/017084069501600605 [29] Spender, J. (1996) Making Knowledge the Basis of a Dynamic Theory of the Firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17, 45-62. [30] McEvily, R. (2003) Network Structure and Knowledge Transfer. Bureau of Economic Survey, Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 240-267. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3556658 [31] Hansen, M., Nohria, N. and Tierney, T.J. (1999) What’s Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge? Harvard Business Review, 23, 106-116. [32] Cross, R. and Cummings, J. (2004) Tie and Networks Correlates of Individual Performance in Knowledge-Intensive Work. Academy of Management Journal, 47, 928-937.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20159632 [33] Kleiner, A. and Roth, G. (1997) How to Make Experience Your Company’s Best Teacher. Harvard Business Review, 75, 172-177. [34] Ardichvili, A., Page, V. and Wentling, T. (2003) Motivation and Barriers to Participation in Virtual Knowledge Sharing Communities of Practice. Journal of Knowledge Management, 7, 64-77.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13673270310463626 [35] Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803932 [36] Dyer, J.H. and Noboeka, K. (2001) Creating and Managing a High Performance Knowledge Sharing Network: The Toyota Case. Strategic Management Journal, 21, 345-368. [37] Alavi, M. and Leidner, D. (2001) Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues. MIS Quarterly, 25, 107-136.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3250961 [38] Mazutis, D. and Slawinski, N. (2008) Leading Organizational Learning through Authentic Dialogue. Management Learning, 39, 437-456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350507608093713 [39] Chaffey, D. and Wood, S. (2005) Business Information Management: Improving Performance Using Information. Pearson Education Ltd., Upper Saddle River. [40] Dixon, M. (1999) The Organizational Learning Cycle: How Can We Learn Collectively. Gower Publishing Ltd., Hampshire. [41] Faulkner, W., Senker, J. and Velho, L. (1995) Knowledge Frontiers: Public Sector Research and Industrial Innovation in Biotechnology, Engineering Ceramics and Parallel Computing. Oxford University Press, Oxford. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198288336.001.0001 [42] Schwarzwalder, R. (1999) Librarians as Knowledge Management Agents. Econtent, 22, 63-65. [43] Zack, M. (1999) Managing Codified Knowledge. Sloan Management Review, 40, 45-58.