Browsing by Author "Rapola, Meri"

In today’s fast phased, knowledge intensive economy, knowledge has become the most valuable asset for organizational success. A significant part of organizational knowledge is tacit knowledge, which refers to individual knowledge that is deeply rooted in action and difficult to communicate to others through language. Tacit knowledge is complex knowledge that enables skilful performance and is gained through experience and learning. As workforce ages and baby boomers retire, organizations need to capture the tacit knowledge of their experienced employees in order to remain viable. In order to do this, the individual tacit knowledge must be shared to others. Previous research has shown that effective transfer of tacit knowledge requires close interaction and collaboration between employees. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the methods though which tacit knowledge can be shared and identify factors that affect the sharing of tacit knowledge. This thesis was conducted as a descriptive literature review with an orientation of narrative overview. The material consisted of research articles and literature. The materials included themes of adult learning, knowledge and intellectual capital management and expertise development. The data was limited to materials published between 1990 and 2018 and was collected from University databases, Google Scholar, Research Gate and the libraries. The results of the literature review showed that the most effective methods for transferring tacit knowledge were mentoring pairs, communities of practice, storytelling and structured interviews. The factors affecting tacit knowledge sharing were organizational culture and the cognitive dimension of tacit knowledge and expertise. Tacit knowledge could be revealed through action and interaction, and was transferred from one to another through means of observation, learning by doing and reflective dialogue. Providing possibilities for collaboration and interaction and for creating trusted relationships between employees is therefore the key for organizations to capture and to be able utilize the individual tacit knowledge even when the employees leave.