Tacit Knowledge: A Literature Review

Abstract

Knowledge was considered a valuable asset to individual, group, organizations. There was no knowledge without information. Information was processed data whereas knowledge was concise and suitable collection of information in a way that makes it useful. Information was for understanding but knowledge was own experience. Michael Polanyi, in his book Personal Knowledge defined that tacit knowledge was information but that’s difficult to transfer to others. Tacit knowledge include things like experience, perspective, and intuition. Ivan 2015 on his article stated that Tacit Knowledge is personal, known by an individual and is context specific, highly experiential and difficult to document and communicate, sharing involves learning, cannot easily be codified but can only be transmitted via training & experiences. The global growth demand for knowledge enhancement is considerably high since knowledge translates into creating values through the industries. With the development of Information Technology, learning styles and methods of knowledge acquisition changed vastly. Moreover, it motivates and aids to retain the acquired knowledge. Therefore, it is highlighted that with the help of the current technological advancements sharing tacit knowledge will be easier and effective. It is important to investigate methodologies used in past studies of the tacit knowledge in education discipline. The purpose of the study was to study the past research methodologies and methods of 18 empirical studies on tacit knowledge in Education. Major findings included that as tacit knowledge is more subjective and to understand it qualitative methods should be used such as personal interviews, scenario methods. There is vast opportunity for future research on understanding the role of tacit knowledge focusing on specific educational fields mainly practical based educations such as performing and visual arts.