FROM TACIT TO EXPLICIT: AN INTERPLAY SHAPING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS

Organizations are like organisms and have a collective sense of identity and fundamental purpose (Michael, Irick 2007). These organizations face a major challenge of knowledge management in order to develop sound methods of management practice. In organizations there are various kinds of behavior that the individuals posses. Some of these behaviors may be externalized, or converted from internal behavior to external behavior (Micheal, Irick, 2007). The organization and the mangers should try to assess these behaviors in order to manage the knowledge within an organization. So there is a clear need to maintain and asses the knowledge, that the individuals posses. This is commonly known as knowledge management and is of great importance to the success of an organization. "Due to lack of coherence in the diverse recommendations for knowledge management practice results from the fact that the development of both theory and practice in this emerging field driven by two fundamentally different approaches to indentifying and managing knowledge in organizations. These two approaches are characterized as the tacit knowledge approach and the explicit knowledge approach." (Sanchez Ron 2001). Hence it is very important for organizations to focus on these two approaches and try to advance the overall standard of knowledge management. There is a vide amount of difference between the two approaches and the organizations need to acquire the best of both to gain competitive advantage in the global market. What knowledge management should try achieving is not a static management of information or existing knowledge, but a dynamic management of the process of creating knowledge out of knowledge. This paper will try to understand the complete process of knowledge management within organizations and present a process by which it can used effectively.