Knowledge Management in Modern Organizations, Essay Example

The value of studying tacit knowledge management and transfer techniques used by modern companies is evidently growing at present, since tacit knowledge has been recognized as a strategically significant asset of any business enterprise. Hence, knowledge management has become a significant aspect of HR departments’ functioning, and understanding of the mechanism of knowledge functioning, creation, transfer, and preservation within an organizational workplace environment has become an essential task for HR managers (Jennex, 2007). Moreover, effective tacit knowledge management and transfer are associated with maintenance of a competitive advantage in a fierce and changeable market environment, which obviously adds value to tacit knowledge in business settings.

The comprehension of effective tacit knowledge management and transfer techniques is inseparably connected with studying the companies exhibiting best practices in the field. The reason for this is that management and transfer techniques may prove effective only after being tested in their application to real-life business settings. Therefore, the present dissertation is dedicated to the system of tacit knowledge management and tacit knowledge transfer techniques in one of the Canadian manufacturing organizations, Baytech Plastics, Inc. From the researcher’s ontological viewpoint, the knowledge that can serve as the preliminary assumption for constructing arguments in the present work is the existence of tacit and explicit knowledge, and the strategic importance of both in the performance of every individual and every business entity. Overall, in-depth understanding of tacit knowledge management along with tacit transfer techniques provides comprehension of principles of business organization’s survival, success, and wellbeing.

Baytech is one of today’s most successful manufacturing companies standing out from others owing to its effective tacit knowledge management and transfer techniques that drive its success. In this context, it is worth revealing the specific techniques that provide the company with sustainability. The study thus represents a mixed-method research endeavor to understand the secret of tacit knowledge management and transfer techniques’ success of Baytech. By means of using structured quantitative questionnaires and in-depth qualitative interviews with 23 managers of Baytech, the researcher plans to understand the ways in which employees perceive and treat tacit knowledge within the company, and what effort they and their administration make to preserve, accumulate, and generate tacit knowledge for contributing to further business success of Baytech Plastics, Inc.

Specific purposes of the present research are as follows:

1. To bring about a social change by means of identifying successful knowledge management and transfer techniques contributing to innovation, improvement of the industrial workflow, and acceleration of various industrial operations.
2. To identify ways of improving access to the body of knowledge generated within the company for employees.
3. To reveal the ways in which successful tacit knowledge management and transfer techniques can encourage the establishment of the knowledge society.

The key theory guiding the present research is that of tacit and explicit knowledge by Michael Polanyi (1958). The fundamentals of tacit knowledge management and transfer are also associated with the concept of a learning organization based on Albert Bandura’s self-efficacy theory. The key assumption guiding the present research is that tacit knowledge plays an extremely essential role in today’s business environment characterized with tough competition, innovations, and incorporation of advanced technologies. Expected research findings are associated with identifying the best tacit knowledge management and transfer techniques used in Baytech Plastics, Inc., referring them to the theoretical body of knowledge on tacit knowledge transfer and management, and identifying the wider social implications of the tacit knowledge management and transfer techniques’ use in business settings.

References

Bandura, A. (1997). Exercise of personal and collective efficacy in changing societies. In A. Bandura (Ed.), Self-Efficacy in Changing Societies (pp. 1-45). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Jennex, M. (2007). Knowledge Management in Modern Organizations. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Inc.

Polanyi, M. (1983). Tacit Dimension. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith Publisher Inc.