Tacit Versus Explicit Knowledge

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As defined by Nonaka (1998), "tacit knowledge has an important cognitive dimension. It consists of mental models, beliefs, and perspectives so ingrained that we take them for granted, and therefore cannot easily articulate them" (Harvard Business Review, p. 27-28, 1991). While in contrast Nonaka defines explicit knowledge as, "formal and systematic. For this reason, it can be easily communicated and shared" (Harvard Business Review, p. 27, 1998) As a minister in my local church there is a constant flow of knowledge from tacit to tacit as I am mentored by my leader. 40 years of experiential knowledge that has shaped her beliefs and actions, is shared in such a way that similarly to Ikuko Tanaka's experience with the head baker, "they have become part of my own tacit knowledge base" (Harvard Business Review, p. 28, 1998). This knowledge then goes from tacit to explicit as I am tasked to create a syllabus and teach a class within the ministry's institute. As a consultant working for an organization that develops proprietary software and sells it to government, state and educational facilities, daily usage of an internal shared Knowledge Base requires that tacit knowledge is communicated by the product development team as support issues arise. This knowledge is then made explicit as the information becomes a permanent part of the KB. "Tacit knowledge tends to reside within the heads of knowers, whereas explicit knowledge is usually contained within tangible or concrete media." (Dalkir, 2011) A great example of tacit to explicit knowledge can be seen in the passing of knowledge from God to Moses and then from Moses to the people. While the commandments may have been written on tablets there was much tacit to tacit knowledge sharing from God to Moses that would eventually become explicit when Moses conveyed it to the Israelites.

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