However, two major types of knowledge are central to KM
- Tacit knowledge
- Explicit knowledge
The distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge is perhaps the most fundamental concept of knowledge management. Such a distinction was first made by Michael Polyani in the 1960s, but it forms one of the central planks of Nonaka and Takeuchi's book The Knowledge-Creating Company (1995) [http://www.skyrme.com/kmbasics/ktacit.htm]
Tacit knowledge (knowing-how): knowledge embedded in the human mind through experience and jobs. Know-how and learning embedded within the minds of people. Personal wisdom and experience, context-specific, more difficult to extract and codify. Tacit knowledge Includes insights, intuitions.
Explicit knowledge (knowing-that): knowledge codified and digitized in books, documents, reports, memos, etc. Documented information that can facilitate action. Knowledge what is easily identified, articulated, shared and employed.
Thus, explicit (already codified) and tacit (embedded in the mind).
| Explicit knowledge | Tacit (implicit) knowledge |
| Objective, rational, technical | Subjective, cognitive, experiential learning |
| Structured | Personal |
| Fixed content | Context sensitive/specific |
| Context independent | Dynamically created |
| Externalized | Internalized |
| Easily documented | Difficult to capture and codify |
| Easy to codify | Difficult to share |
| Easy to share | Has high value |
| Easily transferred/ taught/learned | Hard to document |
| Exists in high volumes | Hard to transfer/teach/learn |
| Involves a lot of human interpretation |
However, Dalkir (2005, p.8) notes that tacit knowledge is quite a relative concept: - what is easily articulated by one person may be very difficult to externalize by another. Thus, the same content may be explicit for one person and tacit for another.
The terms ‘tacit knowledge’ and ‘implicit knowledge’ are sometimes used as synonyms. “Implicit” means that which is implied in a statement, but is not explicitly said. The term could refer to things that are contextual to a statement - that is, further statements that are connected with it in socially understandable manners.
