It is difficult for organizations to effectively manage personal knowledge so it can be mobilized, shared, and rewarded to benefit the organization. These difficulties occur particularly in large geographically dispersed, hierarchical organizations. The management of developing, identifying successful practices, building up and maintaining tacit knowledge, requires an understanding of how these ideas have emerged within the organization through a Tacit Knowledge Exchange (TKE) process. Identification and understanding of TKE characteristics is difficult as they are invisible (tacit). The TKE process in action requires the adoption of multiple methods and approaches employed simultaneously. A series of cases study instances were used as a basis for the methodology, each contributing specific aspects of the methodology. The initial three case study instances, each yielded specific characteristics regarding tacit knowledge exchange and networking. The findings from the initial three case study instances were tested in a large hierarchical, complex engineering organization. This final case study instance, prototyped a methodology to graphically codify, index and build up in-house tacit knowledge abilities through mapping staff knowledge. The final case study instance allowed for investigations into what these TKE characteristics of a complex organization would utilize To date, specific TKE characteristics have not been well understood. This research contributed to specific understanding of the identification TKE characteristics and network structures. The outcome of the research provided a graphical structure identifying who would be likely to possess the kind of knowledge they need to find. The interview process was an important facilitator to precondition the knowledge bearers for sharing, thus locating key

With the change in the economic structures of Western industrialised countries and the shift of traditional industries towards knowledge and services in recent decades the challenge to stay competitive in increasingly globalised culturally diverse markets continues to be a priority for organisations. Of central importance is the need to acknowledge, utilise and share the diversity of employees' knowledge, particularly tacit knowledge that is ethnically influenced, a resource that is enormously rich yet overlooked, undervalued and under-utilised in the employment market. This PhD dissertation focuses on the implications of the knowledge era for how organisations manage their culturally diverse workforce. The purpose of the research is to explore the organisational strategies required for Australian businesses to support and encourage the development and sharing of knowledge between employees of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Arising from an extensive review of the literature on both Diversity and Knowledge Management, a framework for a holistic Diversity Knowledge Management/Sharing (D-KM/S) Strategy was developed. This framework identified the need for organisations to develop a productive diversity management model that consists of a number of elements including a two-way communication strategy, training in cultural intelligence (CQ) and the development of opportunities for social networking through Communities of Practice. A four-phased process for the organisational journey towards a holistic D-KM/S Strategy was proposed. An initial audit of several Australian organisations recognised for their award-winning diversity management strategies confirmed the validity of this framework. The framework was then used to underpin the qualitative interpretive case study of three of the organisations that had been part of the initial audit to determine to what extent these organisations had succeeded in progressing through these phases towards the final holistic D-KM/S Strategy. In so doing, the candidate also focused on the role of the Human Resources Department (traditionally responsible for implementing diversity policy within organisations) in implementing a more holistic approach. From a comparison of the findings from the primary research the candidate concluded that while each organisation had progressed through several of the phases towards a holistic D-KM/S Strategy, they differed in their progress and none had as yet achieved the final phase. The study did identify two additional elements that require further research which relate to the potential of Information Technology to provide opportunities for social networking, and the potential of 'narrative' to be used to share culturally influenced stories. The research concludes that the organisational strategies required for Australian businesses to support and encourage the development and sharing of knowledge between employees of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds includes: first, a productive diversity strategy that acknowledges both the explicit and tacit knowledge that a multicultural workforce brings to an organisation; and, second, processes that embed two-way communication opportunities for employees and managers, training in CQ for an increased number of managers and employees, greater support for social networking opportunities through Communities of Practice (supported by Information Technology tools), and encouragement of opportunities for employees to share cultural narratives. In addition, the thesis proposed an increased role for the Human Resources Department (working closely with line managers) in the achievement of a holistic D-KM/S Strategy.

In order to achieve competitive advantage, organisations have to be strategic in their knowledge management. This specifically concerns the management of tacit knowledge, which is known as the intangible type of knowledge. Without an effective strategy for this, organisations stand the risk of losing valuable knowledge and expertise when employees leave the organisation. Research on how to manage tacit knowledge is limited. Therefore, this thesis has investigated the possibility of using organisational storytelling as a tool to manage tacit knowledge. Hence, the purpose with this thesis is to investigate whether organisational storytelling can be used as a strategy to manage tacit knowledge. This has been examined through a case study at SCA Packaging Sweden, which is a rare example of an organisation, which uses storytelling to share knowledge. Qualitative interviews and organisational stories have been analysed in order to investigate how storytelling can be used to create, retain and transfer tacit knowledge. The data collected has also been used to determine if organisational storytelling is effective when managing tacit knowledge.   From our analysis we could conclude that SCA Packaging Sweden’s usage of organisational storytelling creates, retains, and transfers knowledge within the organisation. In addition, our analysis has shown that the stories are rich in tacit knowledge. We can therefore argue that organisational storytelling can be an effective strategy to manage tacit knowledge.

The purpose of this study is to determine how nonroutine acts performed by iii trained emergency workers developed into routine emergency acts and skills. I will be specifically looking for concepts that are common throughout the different types of emergency workers that will be interviewed. The data is gathered from focus groups that were recruited from classes on campus. In particular the results depict some very common techniques used in training that allowed the workers to feel confident about their role in emergencies. These tended to include repetition of "classroom training, "but more importantly from the viewpoint of the workers, repetition of simulated emergencies. The development of autonomy in decision making was an important facet for workers whose work "territory" was varied; however, autonomy was rarely stressed for those in relatively constant surroundings such as pools. Several commonalities were found throughout each field. These included interruptions, self-efficacy, the use of judgment and tacit knowledge. Many of the participants also expressed the same sentiment towards their feelings of the training and its efficiency. Some research will also show attempts to change policy and training within emergency workers in order to improve job performance and enhance the safety of the public as well. I will include a small statistical appendix that looks at the satisfaction level of evacuees who fled to Houston, Texas when Hurricane Katrina hit. Five specific factors were examined and regressed to determine satisfaction levels. Only two factors showed any type of significance. As the discussion will indicate, certain previous factors, before the hurricane hit, are believed to be the cause of these particular results.

Throughout the life-cycle of a design project, architects rely heavily on their tacit design knowledge to support design decisions. Tacit knowledge is highly personal and implicit. As such, it encompasses expertise, intuitive understanding, and professional insight formed as a result of experience. Due to its implicit nature, tacit design knowledge is typically shared only among colleagues who work in the same office through face-toface interactions. With emerging Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) technologies, designers face new opportunities for capturing and reusing tacit design knowledge. However, there is no accepted CMC strategy for sharing tacit design knowledge in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. This research investigates the impact of tacit design knowledge on design performance in a distributed design environment supported by CMC software. The software was developed and tested in three design studios in which design students sought advice from experts in remote locations. It provides tools for showing images, such as drawings and renderings, and for engaging in a written dialogue (chat session). The written and graphic artifacts of the conversation are stored in a Web-accessible database. The chat sessions included the identification, clarification, and explanation of real problems. Dialogue records provide evidence of a significant influence upon the students’ approach to conceptual design. Content analysis of the comments from the experts provides qualitative evidence for the software’s effectiveness. The participants shared past experience, professional recommendations, and intuitive expectations. In follow-up surveys, most participants reported that their experience with the software was very enjoyable and the software is well-designed to support sharing of design knowledge. This research also suggests that tacit design knowledge may be confidently captured and shared through careful strategic implementation of CMC technology in a distributed design environment. Demographic and attitudinal surveys of the participants suggest that enabling factors for sharing tacit design knowledge include knowledge sharing attitude, just-in-time expertise matching, and timing of the communication.

Background: Organizational spending on marketing needs to be justified and therefore measured. New technology has enabled new ways of conducting market research. Research question: How can knowledge be transferred from a crowd of consumers to a company operating in the retail industry? Purpose: To explore the process of knowledge transfer in a new type of market research company by creating an understanding of (1) how to gather knowledge through engaging and motivating a crowd to share information, (2) how to analyze and transfer it to the clients, and in the end (3) how the clients receive the information and are able to create knowledge internally. Methodology: Qualitative single case study through semi-structured interviews with the case company and two of their clients. This was combined with secondary data and observations. Conclusions: Motivated users are important when gathering knowledge through crowdsourcing. Focusing on gathering and transferring explicit knowledge makes it more actionable and therefore more valuable when it comes to market insights. Externalization was found to only be partly possible in the case company, which strengthens established theories published after Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). Absorptive capacity and relationships had influence on the knowledge transfer and how the results were acted upon in the client organizations.

Background: How to facilitate the knowledge transfer between projects is a field that has obtained a lot of attention in research. Despite this wide attention, many organizations still experience difficulties to efficiently transfer knowledge between their projects and thus the problems still remain, which appears contradictory. Previous research has had a tendency to assume that all knowledge can be articulated and codified, which has resulted in that solutions to these problems often have been directed towards the side in the transfer that creates the supply of knowledge. However, limited research has taken the receiver of the knowledge into consideration when analyzing these difficulties, who is considered to be equally influential to motivate a transfer. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the challenges concerning the knowledge transfer from past to future projects, by exploring the importance of incorporating the receiver’s perspective in the analysis of knowledge transfer practices. Methodology: This study has applied a qualitative research methodology where the empirical data has been obtained through an interview-study with nine onsite interviews in two different firms, ABB and SIEMENS. Furthermore, documents were studied in order to compliment and increase the understanding of the information provided in the interviews. Conclusions: By incorporating the receiver in the analysis we can conclude that the practices applied are not efficient in actually transferring the complete knowledge. Herewith, socialization becomes vital as a complement to these practices in order to also transfer the ‘hidden’ explicit knowledge as well as tacit knowledge that the receiver is in need of. The findings thus demonstrate the importance of taking the nature of knowledge into account when investigating the challenges with current knowledge transfer practices.

This practicum examines how planners can exchange tacit knowledge about climate change adaptation, in order to create better communities and to further the profession. Two regions of British Columbia - the Lower Mainland and the Kootenay’s - provided case studies to determine if and how tacit knowledge was exchanged. These two regions are provincial leaders in climate change adaptation, yet their constituent communities are at different stages of adaptation. Through a literature review and case study analysis - featuring key informant interviews, the practicum demonstrates that tacit knowledge is indeed being exchanged within the regions, yet not as strongly between them. Recommendations are offered aiming to improve tacit knowledge exchange within the profession of planning – among planners and through their professional planning Institutes, and for such exchange to be better supported by planning education.

Record numbers of employees are retiring in Canada (Conference Board of Canada, 2009), and with their exit, copious amounts of organizational knowledge could be exiting too (Collins, 2007). In this thesis, I propose and test a model of attitudes and intentions towards knowledge sharing with 252 retiring and recently retired employees. The results suggested that the partially mediated alternative model fit the data the best, where affective commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived organizational support predicted attitudes towards knowledge sharing, which in turn positively predicted tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions, as well as negatively predicted intentions to hoard knowledge. There were also significant positive direct paths between job satisfaction and intentions to share tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as a significant negative direct path between job satisfaction and intentions to hoard knowledge. Lastly, organizational policies and practices (tacit and explicit), personal perceived knowledge value (tacit and explicit), and financial stake (explicit) were significant moderators. Study findings and limitations, as well as future research directions are discussed.

Healthcare is a knowledge-intensive field. A significant quantum of extremely vital and viable healthcare knowledge exists in a tacit form, yet due to various operational and technical reasons such healthcare knowledge is not entirely utilized and put into professional practice. The strong increase in expert work and knowledge-intensive fields make examining the topic timely and hypothetically interesting.The most significant contribution of this study is the increase in understanding, as well as, tacit healthcare knowledge sharing amongst physicians and clinicians with the type of collaborative tools and technologies they have at their disposal. Collaborative tools and technologies help employees of an organization work closely with their colleagues, partner organization and other volunteers as tacit healthcare knowledge sharing among clinicians such as sharing of best practices, tips and tricks, inter professional collaborative networking, clinical experiences and skills are known to have a significant impact on the quality of medical diagnosis and decisions.This paper posits that collaboration tools and technologies can provide new opportunities for tacit healthcare knowledge sharing amongst health-experts, and demonstrates this by presenting findings from a review of relevant literature and a survey conducted with Medical Doctors who have moderate to high interaction with collaborative tools and technologies in the healthcare industry. Semi-structure interviews were conducted with health-experts (Medical Doctors and clinicians) of Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. Final thematic analysis unveiled six themes as potential contributors of collaborative tools and technologies in facilitating tacit healthcare knowledge sharing among clinicians. The newly developed themes are described and interpreted briefly; extensive literature review has been carried out to relate the emerged themes with the literatures and part of interview participant responses are supported as well. Finally this research suggests further empirical studies shall be conducted to acknowledge this study.