1.0 Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter describes the ... - DSpace

Tiwana (2000), it has categorized two major types of knowledge:a. Explicit KnowledgeIt is the knowledge that can be expressed in words and numbers, and easilycommunicated and shared in the form of hard data, scientific formulae, codifiedprocedures, or universal principles (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Choo, 2003)such as outputs of Research and Development (R&D) teams, strategicinformation about customers, suppliers, products and competitors. Besides, theexplicit knowledge can also be accumulated through reports that consist of‘know-what’ knowledge.b. Tacit KnowledgeIt is the knowledge that can be expressed through people’s minds via their viewsand experiences, which cannot be recorded easily (Tiwana, 2000). Tacitknowledge can also be conveyed through ‘face-to-face’ and ‘hands-on’ methodsby focusing on ‘know-how’ knowledge to others that includes competencies andknowledge resources of human capital within the organization.Elizabeth A.Smith (2001) believed that workers who are lacking in adequate educationand training rely on common sense and intuition or tacit knowledge. While the ability toacquire and manage tacit knowledge is deemed to be the key to managerial success,however it is also found that the tacit knowledge can be lost through employeeoutsourcing, organization downsizing, job termination and retirement. As a result, mostorganizations are trying to retain their employees or capture and store their knowledgefor future reference.According to Hansen et al. (1999), Koehn and Abecker (1997), the two main strategiesfor KM that have been employed by early adopters of principals are:2