When evaluating tacit knowledge in teamwork practices in my organisation I noticed similarities to Rory Eckardt’s book called “Tacit Knowledge Transfer and Firm Growth: An Experience-Based Approach.” Rory talks about theory integration, which is used in my company as workshops and individual learning to achieve knowledge transfer between teams. According to this model, teams contribute to organizational growth, when accumulating tacit knowledge.
Managers need to evaluate the diversity of skills within the teams. A more diverse team is likely to posess a wider range of tacit knowledge. The formation of teams are needed to be assessed. Are they considered to be designed to encourage functional collaboration and knowledge exchange.
Analyzing communication channels in the teams becomes a important part. Regular team meetings, collaboration between platforms and other channels need to be plausible for informal knowledge learning. Eckhardt mentioned to evaluate openness of communication, is the culture encouraging team members to share their tacit knowledge?
When evaluating tacit knowledge, you need to identify if the organization is recognizing and valuing individual expertise within their teams. This influences the willingness of members to share their knowledge.
Organizations need to place mechanism, that acknowledge and reward tacit contributions.
When evaluating manager-employee context, theory integration highlights the role of the managers, who need to be facilitating tacit knowledge transfer. Managers have a crucial role in the environment that rewards and encourages learning and sharing the skills you have.
First step is to evaluate the leadership style of the managers, which I have written before. Transformational leadership includes a culture of continuous learning and skill sharing. Organisations managers who can ecnourage innovation and providing a safe space for sharing tacit knowledge without a fear of judgement.
Rickhardt mentions that performance management plays a crucial role. You need to evaluate how it is managed. A system, which values learning and sharing can have a positive impact on the employees and their mentality towards sharing tacit knowledge.
Training and development can enchance employees’ skills and tacit knowledge. Evaluation is in order to find out if there are mentorship programs and opportunities for employees to learn from more experienced people.
How are these used in my organisation
My organisation always prefers a more diverse team, in which people are more likely to have tacit knowledge. Workshops and online courses are used to widen the area of expertise. Since tacit knowledge is learned through experience, it requires experienced people to create these workshops and courses, which we have. Communication channels are used to recognize the need for courses and learning.
Leadership styles vary depending on the teams, which would require evaluations are the managers using their best leading tactics to foster tacit knowledge sharing. Promoting a learning culture has become more important every year. Mentorship programs are missing from our organisation’s structure.
Employee recognition programs are not widely used in the organisation, but they are becoming more and more common. We have had a few reward systems in place, but they are not commonly used.
In conclusion the organisation is trying to implement these strategies to create a environment that values tacit knowledge, continuous learning and enchancing the capability of it’s employers. The size of the company is holding these back.
How different KM practices can be developed?
Document sharing and version control
Evaluating currently used document management system and collaboration tools to identify points of failure.
After the evaluation, implementing a stardardized naming system, version control, collaborative platforms and regular training session are needed. There are various types of documents that need to be managed within the company, like a drawing revision for example.
To achieve this goal we need to:
– Create a revision control system for documents, which tracks updates of the revisions and saves previous versions as well.
– Creating guidelines on documents
– Training employees to use the new system
– Standardize naming of the documents
– Introduce real-time editing
– Train employees regulary in case of updates
– Integrate new possible technologies
Knowledge sharing workshops
Hosting an event, which focuses on knowledge sharing among peers, to allow employees to share their experise and learn from others.
To achieve this goal we need to:
– Organize continuous workshops, like internal conferences.
– Encourage employees to show successful projects and new solutions
– Gathering feedback from employees and their wishes
References
Andreeva.T and Kianto.A(2011). Does knowledge management really matter? Linking knowledge management practices, competitiveness and economic performance
Eckardt.R (2018). Tacit Knowledge Transfer and Firm Growth: An Experience-Based Approach.
Inkinen.H (2015).Review of empirical research on knowledge management practices and firm performance