Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

5.4 Tacit Knowledge
Óscar Arias Londoño
5.4.1 Cognitive elements. The following trends were found among <strong>the</strong> employees:
Scheme: They have <strong>the</strong> capacity to understand authority and hierarchical roles between <strong>the</strong> hiring
company and <strong>the</strong> cooperative; this show <strong>the</strong>m <strong>the</strong> unbalances in <strong>the</strong> power relationships.
Paradigm: They express that whereas capitalism rules <strong>the</strong> economical relations, it will not be
possible to overcome <strong>the</strong> current poverty levels; trying to survive becomes <strong>the</strong> only alternative.
Belief: They consider that outsourcing is a mechanism for labor exploitation.
Opinion: They want <strong>the</strong> government and hiring companies think <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir lifestyle quality and <strong>the</strong>ir
families’.
5.4.2 Technical elements. The following aspects have been found among <strong>the</strong> employees:
Know-how: They call <strong>the</strong>mselves experts due to <strong>the</strong> previous labor experience, <strong>the</strong>ir learning
skills and capacity for transferring <strong>the</strong>ir knowledge to o<strong>the</strong>rs.
The Job: They highly value <strong>the</strong>ir performance since it is crucial for <strong>the</strong> company’s progress and
for <strong>the</strong>mselves as employees.
Skills: They work hard on mastering <strong>the</strong>ir technical performance in order to improve in <strong>the</strong>ir field
and get promoted in <strong>the</strong>ir companies or elsewhere seeking for better salaries.
Competences: They do not want to decrease <strong>the</strong>ir current performance by demonstrating <strong>the</strong>ir
knowledge on <strong>the</strong>ir fields even though contractual terms are not a motivation.
Table 3: Tacit knowledge aspects and characteristics
5.5 Ontological aspects related to tacit knowledge (See: Table 4)
5.5.1 Related to <strong>the</strong> cognitive. Three aspects have been found:
A duality between <strong>the</strong> autonomy sense as owners <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> cooperative and <strong>the</strong> sense o heteronomy
derived from outsourcing.
Self–puzzlement feeling for being part <strong>of</strong> a cooperative company and <strong>of</strong> ano<strong>the</strong>r one that
competes.
A feeling <strong>of</strong> being temporarily working for <strong>the</strong> cooperative and wish for being directly hired by <strong>the</strong>
hiring company.
5.5.2 Related to <strong>the</strong> technical. Two aspects have been found.
A deeply rooted wish and conviction <strong>of</strong> finding new and better labor conditions leading to improve
<strong>the</strong>ir quality <strong>of</strong> life.
Moral conflict in terms <strong>of</strong> commitment to <strong>the</strong> cooperative or <strong>the</strong> hiring company.
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