mapping tacit knowledge with 'epitomes

Systèmes d'Information et Management

Volume 8 | Issue 2 Article 5

2003

Mapping Tacit Knowledge with "Epitomes"Tua Haldin-HerragardSwedish School of Economics and Business Administration in Vasa, Department of Management and Organization, [email protected]

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Mapping Tacit Knowledgewith "Epitomes"

Tua HALDIN-HERRGARD

Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Management and Organization, Swedish School of Economics

and Business Administration in Vasa, Finland

ABSTRACT

Many concepts are often used to clarify tacit knowledge. This article presents how theseEpitomes of Tacit Knowledge (ETK) have been collected, systemized and how a method tomap organization-specific knowledge has been created and tested. The results are basedon a study in an asset management company in Finland.

Key-words : Tacit knowledge, Epitomes of Tacit Knowledge, Knowledge management.

RÉSUMÉ

Plusieurs concepts sont souvent utilisés pour caractériser la connaissance tacite. Cet ar-ticle présente comment des Epitomés de Connaissance Tacite (ECT) peuvent être assemblés,systématisés et comment une méthode pour cartographier la connaissance tacite d'une or-ganisation peut être développée et mise en oeuvre. Les résultats sont basés sur une étude decas d'une entreprise financière de gestion d'actifs.

Mots-clés : Connaissance tacite, Epitomés de connaissance tacite, Gestion de la connaissance.

N° 2 - Vol. 8 - 2003 931

Haldin-Herragard: Mapping Tacit Knowledge with "Epitomes"

Published by AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), 2003

SYSTÈMES D'INFORMATION ET MANAGEMENT

1. INTRODUCTION

The articulation of tacit knowledgewill probably still be a matter of dis-cussion in the future and making atleast some parts of it explicit is aconstant effort. The intention of thisarticle is to take part of these efforts.

In business culture the concept oftacit knowledge has not been highlyvalued (Beardwell & Holden, 2001;Lam, 2000). Not only due to its appa-rent lack of rationality (Zack, 1999) butalso because of difficulties in the per-ception of the concept itself.Abstraction and lack of measurabilityare the main reasons of these difficul-ties. The concept may be more appre-ciated with methods for mapping it(measuring tacit knowledge is stillconsidered unfeasible) and through apossible concretization of it.

In a knowledge-society like ours thevalue of tacit knowledge should bereappraised. The interest in knowled-ge has increased during recent yearsand although the interest in tacitknowledge has been somewhat less(Zack, 1999) it is also increasing(Augier & Vendelo, 1999; Holtshouse,1998; Ropo & Parviainen, 2000; Wong& Radcliff, 2000).

Both scholars and managers encoun-ter difficulties working with tacitknowledge but if the user acknow-ledges the use of at least some of thetacit knowledge, it becomes more ex-plicit and therefore easier to study(Brockmann & Anthony, 1998), mana-ge and share.

To counteract difficulties with tacit-ness a variety of expressions and epi-

tomes are used. Epitomes, as typicalexpressions or symbols, are common-ly used as elucidatory examples to un-derstand tacit knowledge. They there-fore form natural tools for themapping of the concept. Epitomes oftacit knowledge (ETK) are conceptslike intuition, know-how, rule-of-thumb and gut feeling, concepts thatare widely used but without conside-ration for their meaning. This may re-sult in misunderstandings and therefo-re such concepts need clarification. Asorting of these concepts into taxono-mies facilitates their analysis and the-refore their usage in both academyand business. However, mapping tacitknowledge locates it and therefore fa-cilitates its management, sharing andstudy. The research problem addres-sed in this article is hence the lack ofa method to study and manage tacitknowledge.

The aim of this article is therefore toconsider how epitomes of tacit know-ledge (ETK) can be used for mappingtacit knowledge in organizations,through focusing on:

• What an epitome of tacit know-ledge is;

• How epitomes can be systemized;

• How they can be used for map-ping tacit knowledge in an organi-zation.

ETK card-interviews have been usedto map tacit knowledge in an assetmanagement company. The methodwill be described and some of the re-sults of the study on the use and im-portance of tacit knowledge will becursory discussed.

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Systèmes d'Information et Management, Vol. 8 [2003], Iss. 2, Art. 5

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MAPPING TACIT KNOWLEDGE WITH "EPITOMES"

H. THE CONCEPT OF TACITKNOWLEDGE

The distinction of explicit and tacitknowledge according to Nonaka &Tackeuchi (1995) is; explicit as the ob-jective and theoretical knowledge ofrationality, that can be stored after theuse and tacit as the subjective andpractical knowledge of experience,which only can be used in an actual si-tuation. If we see knowledge resourcesin the metaphor of an iceberg, thestructured, explicit knowledge is thevisible top of the iceberg. It is easy tofind and recognize and therefore easyto share. Beneath the surface, invisibleand hard to express , is a momentouspart of the iceberg, the tacit knowled-ge resources. As Michael Polanyi(1966), perceived by many as the"founder" of the concept, expressed it,"we know more than we can tell". It ishard to estimate tacitness of knowled-ge but it can be perceived rather like aspectrum where one extreme is seenas completely tacit and implicit know-ledge and the other as completely ex-plicit and codified knowledge(Leonard & Sensiper, 1998).

Current literature on knowledge em-phasizes the importance of tacit know-ledge not only as a form of competiti-ve advantage (Birchall & Tovstiga,1999) and strategy (Johannessen,Olaisen & Olsen, 2001) but also as re-lated to learning and innovation (Lam,2000). Structured, explicit knowledgeis important to organizational corecompetence but to achieve excellenceone has to master the unstructuredtacit knowledge (Brockmann &Anthony, 1998, Lawson & Lorenzi,1999). Tacit knowledge makes work

go smoothly , increasing for example,the quality and efficiency of decision-making, customer service or produc-tion. (Brockmann & Anthony, 1998).

Discourses on tacit knowledge tend tobe fierce due to differences in interpre-tation of the concept in itself. Scholarsdo agree however, that tacit knowledgeis highly personal, that it is created byexperience and is difficult to express inwords (Augier & Vendelo, 1999; Nonaka& Takeuchi, 1995; Polanyi, 1958). Dueto these characteristics experts alsoagree on the difficulty of tacit knowled-ge diffusion (Bennett & Gabriel, 1999;Holthouse, 1998; Leonard & Sensiper,1998; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995;Polanyi, 1966; Zack, 1999). Differencescan be found in opinions on the possi-bility and need for externalization. Onone hand Michael Polanyi do not dis-cuss the existence of knowledge that isimpossible to express. On the otherhand , Wittgenstein claims its existence(Rolf, 1991). These differences are main-ly due to differences in the perceptionof the concept it self and the ability toexpress tacit knowledge may be depen-dent on the use of language. There maybe a gap between knowledge and theability to use language to express it butthis gap is individual and not general ac-cording to Polanyi (1966). Polanyi(1958) also asserts that it is possible todiffuse tacit knowledge without makingit explicit while Nonaka and Konno(1998) in their SECT-model consider aconversion from tacit to explicit neces-sary for externalization. Nonaka (1995)asserts that to be able to share know-ledge it should firstly be madeconscious but Polanyi (1958) states thatwhether the distributor of tacit know-ledge is conscious or otherwise of the

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knowledge and the sharing is of no im-portance. Whether or not making tacitknowledge conscious is important, theprocess of making it conscious helpspeople to reflect on their work.Independent of varying perceptions oftacit knowledge, the existence of thisconcept has to be recognized for us tobe able to study or manage it. Based onthoughts of personal and situational dif-ferences in ability to express tacit know-ledge, language seems to have an im-portant function and therefore it is anatural starting point to study tacitknowledge. The ETK used by the scho-lars on tacit knowledge provide a meanto do this.

M. TACIT KNOWLEDGEMAPPING

A common question scholars on tacitknowledge receive is on its measurabi-lity. It is still considered too difficult, ifnot impossible to measure tacit know-ledge to accomplish quantification,like for example in accounting. If weuse mapping and more qualitative in-formation instead of measuring, to findout and localize the existing tacitknowledge in an organization, we geta more informative instrument to workwith. In for example tacit knowledgesharing there is a need to know wherethe tacit knowledge is, not the measu-re of it. The most common way of sha-ring tacit knowledge is through face-to-face interaction (Polanyi, 1958) andfor this we have to know the posses-sor of the required tacit knowledge.

It is easier to detect and manage ex-plicit knowledge for example in data-bases but it is just as important to be

aware of and manage the tacit know-ledge. Discussions included in a map-ping process increase consciousness ofthe tacit knowledge in use and this mayincrease consciousness of its sharingtoo.

Interviews are to be preferred to aquestionnaire when we are mappingexisting tacit knowledge in an organi-zation. Due to the nature of tacitknowledge as personal and difficult toexpress, interviews provide the possi-bility to explain and discuss. This kindof mapping includes distinction of tacitknowledge used and a description ofthe work specific meaning in it andtherefore offers profound informationon it. A mapping localizes the tacitknowledge and shows the existence ofsimilarities or differences in meaningof the concepts used.

The importance tacit knowledge hasto the work is also discussed in thismapping and since tacit knowledge isthe personal dimension of knowledge(Polanyi, 1958), the performing em-ployee is the most suitable judge. Thebenefit of the discussion is not only toknow what is used but also whatmakes the difference in performance.

There is not much value in an objec-tive and general instrument to measuretacit knowledge, as a lot of valuable in-formation on tacit knowledge is lost inthe process. Hence a mapping servesthe purpose better.

111.1. The developmentof a method for mapping

J. Horvath (1999) questions if identi-fying subtypes of tacit knowledgecould be used to optimize our approa-

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TACIT KNOWLEDGE MAPPINGTo explain and detect value of tacit knowledge

Literature Review Pilot-interviews

Epitomes of Tacit Knowledge ETK

Systematisation

Interview with cards on ETK

Mapping Definition ImportanceKM instrument Shared meaning Value

Enhance knowledge diffusion Diminish conceptual conflicts Increase value

Figure 1: The process of developing the ETK mapping instrument.

ch to knowledge management. Thefollowing mapping method with inter-views suggests that it can. Subtypesused in this method are epitomes oftacit knowledge (ETK) (figure 1).

111.2. Epitomes of Tacit Knowledge(ETK)

As earlier mentioned, the ability toexpress tacit knowledge dependsamong others on the used languageand therefore the difficulty to expresstacit knowledge perhaps lies in thelack of appropriate words. Already in1950 Gilbert Ryle asserted that in eve-ryday life different concepts for "tacitknowledge" are used in communica-tion but it was not until 50 years laterthat someone made an attempt tostudy these kinds of concepts.

Epitomes of tacit knowledge (ETK)were the first time presented by theauthor at the 41" World Congress ofIntellectual Capital (Haldin-Herrgard,2001). It was the result of an extensiveliterature review on tacit knowledge.ETK offer means of a "vocabulary" oftacit knowledge and a conceptualiza-tion of them serves as a languagetools-box for mapping tacit knowled-ge. These concepts are symbols usedfor the tacit dimension of knowledgeand ETK helps us to articulate and un-derstand the abstraction of tacit know-ledge. Although ETK are created forpragmatic use, academia has made useof them in the scientific work. Scholarsnot only use them as part of vocabula-ry when they discuss their research butalso when they collect information ontacit knowledge'.

1 See examples in Giunipero, Dawley & Anthony, 1999, Somech & Bogler, 1999

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In a review of literature on the fieldof knowledge and especially tacitknowledge, concepts clarifying the de-finition of tacit knowledge were pic-ked out and used in the method. As anexample in the definition of Saint-Onge (1996) - "Tacit knowledge in-cludes the intuition , perspectives,beliefs and values that peoples formas a result of their experiences"; wethen define the ETK as a set of fouritems: intuition, perspective, belief andvalues.

According to the literature review themost frequently used epitomes were asfollows,:

• Intuition expressed as directly kno-wing or learning without consciousreasoning or making choices wi-thout formal analysis. (Behling &Enckel, 1991 in Brockmann &Anthony, 1998) Related expressionsto intuition are non-analytical be-havior, automatic knowledge, orflashes of inspiration or insight;

• Skills used as such but also withspecifications like management,people, inductive, negotiation, phy-sical, coordination or cognitiveskills. This is the ETK that is mostused without any form of defini-tion. Some other terms such asability, crafts and practical know-ledge are closely related and oftenused in the same meaning;

• Insight used as understanding,often in a sudden form but also as"glimpses" into self or other indivi-dual knowledge;

Know-how often expressed as theability to put know-what into workwhich is to a great extent the pro-duct of experience (Seely Brown& Duguid, 1998). Know-how ismostly used as such but also withspecifications as practical and col-lective know-how;

Beliefs used as a set of understan-dings that reflect our perspectiveof the world. Beliefs are also ex-pressed as opinions (Giunipero etal., 1999) and sometimes even asattitudes (Leonard & Sensiper,1998; Brockmann & Anthony,1998);

Mental models are cognitive struc-tures formed by the abstractions ofexperience. They reflect our pers-pectives of the world around us.(Giunipero et al., 1999) Other ETKlike cognitive schema, mentalmaps and schemas are used withthe same meaning;

• Practical intelligence expressed as"a persons ability to apply compo-nents of intelligence to everydaylife" (Somech & Bogler, 1999).

A variety of other epitomes relatingto those mentioned-above, as well asmore focused forms were identified. Intotal 149 ETK were collected and apilot study with interviews on ETK re-duced them to 92 ETK3. This decreasewas due to either no answer from therespondents or a close proximity inmeaning that resulted in clusters. Anexample is gut feeling that includes gutinstinct and gut reaction. A systemati-

2 Find the complete list of ETK in Appendix 1

3. In the survey 99 Swedish ETK was used as the translation produced additional meanings in Swedish

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MAPPING TACIT KNOWLEDGE WITH " EPITOMES"

zation of ETK can elucidate their mea-ning and facilitate their usage.

can be involved in it individual-ly, in a specific team or collecti-vely;

111.2. 1. Taxonomies of Epitomesof Tacit Knowledge

There have been few classificationson knowledge and tacit knowledge.Knowing has been classified into twodimensions: the intellectual ("knowingwhat") and the practical ("knowinghow") (Polanyi, 1966; Ryle, 1950).Tacit knowledge has mainly been clas-sified into technical and cognitive di-mensions. The technical dimensioncan be viewed as expertise "at onesfingertips" and it encompasses infor-mation and expertise in relation to"know-how", whereas the cognitive di-mension consists of mental models,beliefs and values and it reflects ourimage of reality and vision of the futu-re. (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Gore, &Gore, 1999).

If we group the concepts of ETK; bythe natural relationships in the mea-ning that scholars put in them, in theirtexts, the mapping of tacit knowledgewill be facilitated and improved. WhenETK are used in interviews the sharedmeaning attained during the interviewscan help the respondents to externali-ze tacitness of knowledge as well asthe interviewers understanding of theinformation given to them.

ETK are sorted into two taxonomiesaccording to:

1. The how abstract the concept is inabstract and concrete terms -,and according to the actors that

2. The activities that are affected bythe use of the concept in mental,sensory, social and practicalterms.

1. Taxonomy based on abstrac-tion and actor(s)

- Abstraction in ETK

A distinctive feature of ETK in the li-terature is difference in abstraction.Although the main characteristic oftacit knowledge is tacitness as abstrac-tion, it can be seen that extents on abs-traction vary from completely abstractto quite concrete in the concepts used.This is supported by Leonard &Sensiper (1998) in their thoughts abouta spectrum of tacitness in knowledge.

Several of the ETK concepts can beconsidered abstract in the sense thatthey cannot be conveyed to others.This is often expressed in the inter-views by "I cannot explain it but...".These are often tacit in the most ge-nuine sense and they are therefore al-most impossible to explain by articula-tion but also through other expressiveforms, like behaviors. Intuition as wellas hunch, gut feeling, 'feeling", andmental-model are included in thisgroup. An example is how one of therespondents in the survey explainedintuition:

"Intuition. You have it within you,you can't explain it to someone elseonly act on it in this way because

4. See Appendix, 2 for examples of taxonomies on ETK

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you believe in it." (Referent no.1,Author's translation)

Other ETK may in themselves beconsidered abstract but lead to moreconcrete results expressed in our be-havior or in the result of our work.Examples are insight, talent, judgment,practical intelligence and rule-of-thumb.

"Talent. People here may have thesame level of knowledge. They havethe same education and so on butthen there are some programmers.What is it that makes some program-mers twice as good as the others?What makes them three times betterthan the others? It is only that somehave an inbuilt ability to do things.You can't put your finger on what itis, it is only there" (Referent no.7,Author's translation)

Culture and know-how consist ofboth explicit and implicit forms ofknowledge but can be recognized byan outsider or an inexperienced per-son. In spite of difficulties in articula-ting tacit knowledge many of the usedETK have high visibility both for actorsand outsiders. Some even to the extentthat they are easier to be recognizedby an outsider than by your self.Examples are best practice, skills, im-provisation, genres and instinctivereaction.

Tacit knowledge management is faci-litated by awareness of the level ofabstraction as it indicates what form ofmethod should be used in for exampletacit knowledge learning.

- Actors included in the ETK

Another distinctive feature is basedon the actors involved. Although tacit

knowledge is usually perceived ashighly individual (Bennett & Gabriel,1999) and personal (Boisot, 1995;Polanyi, 1966) many ETK refer to morecollective tacit knowledge. In a studythis is often expressed in form of "Ifeel..., We improvise... or Allknow......... Only an individual canfeel intuition or gut feeling and it isimpossible to transfer it to other actors.ETK as mental models, attitudes,know-how, judgment, skills and impro-visation include not only individuals asactors but also teams and groups of ac-tors. Individuals have mental modelsand know-how and teams have sharedmental models and a collective know-how developed by former and presentmembers. Best practice, commonsense, and culture are exclusively col-lective; they do not exist without agroup. These ETK are socially or func-tionally based and represent collectiveforms of tacit knowledge.

Actors included indicate the possibi-lity of tacit knowledge sharing andshow that a lot of tacit knowledge is infact possible to share.

2. Taxonomy on affected activity

ETK are also grouped according towhich form of activity is affected bytacit knowledge. Earlier scientific workhas been done on cognitive/technicaldimensions of tacit knowledge but theliterature review showed that these di-mensions do not illustrate ETK com-pletely. Activities used in the literatureand in this taxonomy are mental, sen-sory, social and practical.

Some ETK are related to cognitionand affect actions taken in mentalprocesses such as problem solving.

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We use our intuition, insights andjudgment as we detect, analyze andsolve problems. Cognition can also besorted as a mental process and ourmental models have an influence onour cognitive skills as well as our crea-tivity. A respondent expressed creativi-ty as tacit knowledge in the followingway:

"Creativity is simply idea creationand so on. I understand it as whenwe put your ways of working intoquestion all the time. Are we wor-king with the right things and in theright way? It is in this process thatthe creativity shows" (Referentno.10, Author's translation)

Other ETK used include sensuousprocesses . We often use epitomes in-cluding feelings, both physical andmental feelings. We have 'feelings" aswell as gut feelings or we "know inour body". Other forms of affectionsuch as artistic vision and taste arealso included in sensuous ETK

"Gut feeling is important. You have afeeling, it is this knowledge you haveand the experience. You can't pin-point what it is that makes you feeluneasy when everything, all analysisshows that you should do somethingbut yourself think that you shouldnot do it" (Referent no.4, Author'stranslation)

Tacit knowledge influences and is in-fluenced by our social processes. Forexample norms and communicationskills that control our relationships andinteraction with other people are tacit.The most extensive form of social tacitknowledge can be found in culture.Irrespective of the scope of culture(national or organizational) the foun-

dation of it is tacit concerning beha-vior, values and language, etc.

"Management skills are what I unders-tand as listening to people, discussingwith them, speaking about things thatperhaps are not always are so nice,you can convince people." (Referentno.2, Author's translation)

A common opinion on tacit know-ledge is the practicality of it. This is re-flected in a great variety of ETK usedin practical processes . Most com-monly used are not only differentforms of know-how and skills but alsoETK like techniques, experience, bestpractice, rule-of-thumb and practicalintelligence fit into this group.

"Techniques in our job are only waysof doing things. You have to createyour techniques to do things but youalso have to learn them to be fast incertain things, like reaction"(Referent no.1, Author's translation)

In some ETK the expressed meaningof the concept in different situationsresults in a different classification.Ability for example, can be consideredas both a mental and a practical epito-me depending on the meaning givento the concept. Ability as endowmentmay be grouped as a mental ETK whe-reas ability as skillfulness belongs topractical ETK. An important tacitknowledge is the ability to grasp a ho-listic perspective. This can also befound in the ETK. The holistic ETK aredifficult if not impossible to sort intoonly one group; they belong in someway to all groups. Examples of this areinner or personal competence that in-cludes all four different competencies.

The two taxonomies of ETK put thetraditional view of tacit knowledge as

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- abstract, difficult to explain, indivi-dual and practical - into question. Inthe first taxonomy, the systematizationof ETK that scholars have used shows-that much of tacit knowledge is madeexplicit in other forms than articulationor by articulation in images presentedby epitomes. It also shows that onlysome ETK are individual and thatmany epitomes are used to expressknowledge in teams or even generalknowledge. According to the secondtaxonomy, the practicality of tacitknowledge is not to be interpreted asonly physical but rather as the abilityto get things done irrespective of thetype of activity involved.

111.3. Cards on ETK to map tacitknowledge

ETK serves as tools to identify andreflect on the tacit knowledge used inwork but the interview situation bene-fits from further formalization to main-tain the focus on tacit knowledge. Todo that, one simple, small card is crea-ted for each ETK. Every card consistsof only one numbered ETK. In an in-terview 92 cards are used as triggers tothe discussion and as they are proces-sed one at the time, each constitute thetopic of discussion and the focus (fi-gure 2).

III.3. 1. Mapping-interviewswith ETK cards

Mapping tacit knowledge with"Interview cards on ETK"

1. Create cards and scales2. Face-to-face interviews3. Basic information4. Sorting cards5. Focus questions on each card6. Text analysis to taxonomies7. Other analysis8. Organizational map of Tacit

knowledge

Figure 3: The mapping process.

The mapping process is done as fol-lows:

Start with creating the needed tools;as ETK are culturally based the ETKhas to be adjusted to the surroundingculture. This concerns mainly thelocal language used in the cultureand it may be needed to translate theETK into the language in use. Othertools that are needed for the aim ofthe study can be different scales orschemes.

The cards are preferably used inface-to-face interviews and as theytend to be long and contain narra-tives the use of an audio tape recor-der is recommended.

r 18. Intuition 65. Common-sense 80. Rule-of-thumb

Figure 2: Examples of cards on Epitomes of Tacit Knowledge (ETK), nr . 18, 65 and 80.

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3. Needed basic information like; de-partment, work assignments, gen-der, age etc. are recorded. The re-spondent is informed of the topic ofinterview, the process and that it isrecorded.

4. All the cards are handed over to therespondent and he/she is asked tosort out the cards applicable tohis/her work. The respondent isasked to relate to their way of doingtheir work. After the sorting the in-terviewer collects the cards. Thosenot chosen are put away and thechosen cards form the basis of theinterview.

5. The interview starts and the intervie-wer hands over one card in turn tothe respondent with the questions ofinterest. For example in our casestu-dy the following questions are posed,for the intuition card:

- What meaning has intuition toyou in your work?

- How important is intuition tothe end result of your work on ascale 1-5?

The interviewer can pose additionalquestions to guarantee understan-ding and to create a discussion onthe ETK in question. To be able tosystemize according to the taxono-mies a discussion of the meaningshould always be included.

6. A text analysis of the respondentmeaning of each chosen ETK is per-formed according to the taxono-mies. As the meanings of the ETKare related to the person and thework assignment, this analysis mayresult in different sorting of thesame ETK for different respondents.

Intuition for example can be percei-ved as a social activity to a managerbut a mental activity to a financialanalyst in the same organization.

7. Additional analyses needed for theaim of the study are performed. Ifquantitative data has been gathered,quantitative analyses like descriptivestatistics or cross-tabulation are alsopossible to perform.

8. To create a map of tacit knowledgethe data for each respondent is rela-ted to for example a department,work assignments or other variablesof interest. By connecting all the in-dividual results we have a map ofthe tacit knowledge in the organiza-tion in the form of ETK. This infor-mation can be used as a knowledgemanagement tool to localize compe-tence and as a trigger to the discus-sion of meaning or to assess thevalue employees' attribute to theirtacit knowledge.

The taxonomies of ETK facilitateanalysis of the mapping irrespective ofthe purpose of the study. The choiceof a method of analysis can differ andis of course depending on the data col-lected and the purpose of the study. Inthe following study the informationhas been analyzed both quantitativelyand qualitatively.

IV A STUDY ON MAPPINGTACIT KNOWLEDGE USINGCARDS ON ETK

Next a study of tacit knowledge willbe cursory presented to show the ap-plicability of the method. ETK wereused in a study of an asset managing

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company in Finland. The aim of thestudy was to map use, meaning andimportance of tacit knowledge in thisorganization. An additional aim was totest the suitability of using ETK as amapping instrument for tacit knowled-ge in a work organization.

IV.1. The case firm

Referents in the study were 22 em-ployees in a small asset managementcompany group in alternative invest-ments. It is a technology-based com-pany in the forefront of electronic tra-ding and it tests and utilizes the latestIT technology. The respondents arefrom the firm's all four different de-partments; Market-Making (MM),Information Technology (IT), DOTcomsales (DOT) and Administration(Adm). Market Making is where the ac-tual trading occurs and 8 of the re-spondents work at this department.The IT department creates and deve-lops IT technology for electronic tra-ding for customers as well as IT tech-nology needed within the company. 6respondents work at the IT depart-ment. DOTcom Sales handles custo-mer relationships mainly for the IT ins-truments and Administration supportsand controls the rest of the company.4 respondents work at each DOT andAdm. In this study, there was also adifferenciation between managementand non-management tasks. The ma-nagers have also ranked the em-ployees according to how difficult theywould be to replace.

Audio-recorded interviews with ETKcards were used in this study as well asan evaluation form to assess the impor-tance each specific ETK has to the end

result of the work. The scale for evalua-tion was from 1 (of some importance) to5 (of vital importance). The interviewwas conducted as mentioned earlier andthe structure of the interview consistedof only two basic questions

• "What meaning does this ETK havein your way of doing your work?"

• "How important is this to the resultof your work?"

As one of the aims of the study wasto test the suitability of the method ofdata collection, the interviews wereanalyzed both quantitatively (descripti-ve statistics and cross-tabulation) andqualitatively (text analysis) accordingto the two taxonomies.

Parts of the results of the study arepresented on:

The use and importance of tacitknowledge in the organization;

• ETK as a mapping instrument.

IV 2. The use and importanceof tacit knowledge in thefirm

The number of interviewee choicesof ETK cards indicates the use of tacitknowledge. For each referent the choi-ce of ETK indicate the variety of tacitknowledge in use. For the group ofparticipants the choices also indicatehow common the use of the tacitknowledge is in this firm.

All 22 participants chose one ETKand that was common sense. The mea-ning in the concept varied accordingto departments and assignments fromcommon sense in how to behave orinvest to IT personnel using common

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sense in the time usage in program-ming. The choice of ETK cards indica-te the use of different forms of tacitknowledge. The mapping in this orga-nization showed that employees in theIT department use and hold a greatdeal of tacit knowledge as they had anaverage of over 73 ETK cards chosen.The IT department was also more ho-mogeneous in what tacit knowledgethey use than the others. This is shownby 54 ETK that was chosen by morethan 75% of the respondents of this de-partment. Moreover, also in the otherdepartments the use of tacit knowled-ge was high with an average of 53cards chosen and 25 cards chosen bymore than 75% of the respondents. Itshowed that commonly used ETK arefor example ability, skills, intuition,cognitive skills, know-how, experienceand communication skills. Others aresubjects for specified assignments orgroups like social ETK managerial,people and negotiation skills, lifeexamples, and emotional knowingused by managers and sales personnelor mental ETK like sense-making, com-mon sense, creativity and inductiveskills used by market makers and ITpersonnel. In this mapping we also gota picture of the tacit knowledge usedby those employees valued as mostimportant to the company (high ran-ked), as well as the competence of theemployees involved in personal deve-lopment. The high ranked personnelused more life examples, operationaland social skills, non-analytic beha-vior and improvisation and less pat-terns of experience and common in ex-perience than the low-ranked.

The average and median value of theimportance of the ETK for the end re-

sult of the work was used and eachETK is presented on a scale from 1(some importance) to 5 (of vital im-portance).

The interviewees felt tacit knowled-ge had a significant role to play in theresults of their work. On the scale from1 to 5 the mean value of all ETK for all22 participants was 3.24 (between im-portant and very important). No singleinterviewee had an overall mean valueunder 2.82 and median under 3.Furthermore, 30% of the ETK were va-lued 4 or higher (very or vitally impor-tant). Of highest importance wasknow-how, but also collective know-how, foreseeing, skills and emotionalknowing. The respondents reflectionsduring the interviews resulted often intheir surprise of how important this di-mension of knowledge is.

A notably finding was that the use oftacit knowledge and the importance ofit do not correlate with each other. Asan example, although the use of ETKat the IT department exceeded theother departments, the employees didnot perceive it as more important. Onthe contrary, the general perception inthis organization was that the more anETK was used the lower was its per-ceived importance, and that an ETKconsidered highly important was lesscommonly used. This did not apply tothe group of high ranked employeeshowever, where the use of tacit know-ledge was more common than in lowranked employees and who apprecia-ted tacit knowledge more highly.

By this mapping the organizationcan localize the different forms of tacitknowledge needed and utilized in dif-ferent departments and tasks. It may

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perhaps also explain what it is thatmakes their high ranked employeesdiffer from the rest. As an example theknowledge of the use and importanceof social skills in the IT departmentcan be useful next time they recruit anew programmer. The mapping showsalso what kind of tacit knowledgethose who for example trade use. Bymaking tacit knowledge developmentpossible the skills of the organization'semployees may develop towards theskills of the high ranked. As the map-ping clearly shows who possess whatkind of tacit knowledge and where inthe organization he/she works, lear-ning that enhance tacit knowledge in-ternalization like mentoring, pairing,tutoring etc. is facilitated.

IV 3. ETK as a mapping method

As a technique this offered an excel-lent instrument to collect informationon a topic otherwise difficult to access.The difficulty with articulating tacitknowledge was dealt with and the in-terviews were much more focused bythe use of ETK cards. The gap bet-ween language and tacit knowledgewas narrowed as the respondents werepresented with familiar concepts todiscuss. This resulted in vivid stories oftheir use of tacit knowledge in every-day activities at work. As many of therespondents were not aware of theconcept of tacit knowledge before theinterviews, the ETK were a necessaryconcrete aid for them to understandthe concept it self. The physical cardshelped the respondents to focus oneach of the ETK but also to recognizeconnections between them. Some didit by building actual ETK structures of

the cards. The cards reduced the inter-viewers bias but more importantly theysimplified the questions. As the cardsare quite many the interviews tendedto be long, 60-120 minutes. This sho-wed in sense of fatigue at the end ofthe longer interviews both in the inter-viewer and the interviewee and mayhave had influence on the results. In areduction of cards there is a risk ofloosing variation and therefore impor-tant information. In the choice bet-ween fewer cards and easier inter-views or many cards and variation theaim must guide the choice but it cannever be bad to do a work properly.

Linking all the personal ETK maps tovariables of interest, for example de-partment or assignments, we get amap of tacit knowledge in forms ofETK in the organization. The map sho-wed the conceptual differences butalso forms of tacit knowledge that wasperceived collective and concrete andtherefore easier to share. The visuali-zation of the map depends on theneeds and may vary in different orga-nizations. A map should be simple andclear and a mapping with ETK showswhere and with whom we find whatkind of tacit knowledge. A manager'stask is to utilize this information tocreate the knowledge managementsystem needed.

V. CONCLUSIVE DISCUSSION

To answer questions posed in thebeginning of this article, about what anETK is, how they can be systemizedand used for mapping tacit knowledgein an organization following conclu-sions are drawn.

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V.1. Summary

Epitomes of tacit knowledge (ETK)are concepts like intuition, mental mo-dels, culture and hunch. Theseconcepts are used to elucidate tacit-ness in knowledge. The ETK conceptsare a natural part of our use of a lan-guage but they have not beenconsciously related to tacit knowledgein this way earlier. When we use themwe are often not even conscious of tal-king about tacit knowledge. Also theexperts on tacit knowledge, namelyscholars on the topic, use ETK in theirwritings. The concepts are therefore agood base in collecting a "vocabularyof tacit knowledge".

ETK were collected and systemizedby natural relationships into two taxo-nomies: the first taxonomy accordingto abstraction and actors and the se-cond one in relation to activities thatthey affect. The first taxonomy showedthat ETK differ in the degree of abs-traction from abstract to concrete andin actors involved from individual andgroup to collective tacit knowledge.The second taxonomy showed four ac-tivities affected by the ETK, they aremental, sensory, social and practicalactivities.

Cards on ETK were used in mappingorganization specific tacit knowledgein an asset management company inFinland. The use of ETK in this map-ping helped employees to identify andreflect on tacitness in their work. Theanalysis according to the taxonomiesoffered an opportunity to localize exis-ting tacit knowledge both on organiza-tional level as in the extensive use oftacit knowledge in the IT departmentand on individual level as in what kind

of tacit knowledge the highly rankedemployees use. It showed the extentof shared meaning and emphasizedthe magnitude of tacit knowledge inthe organization as being high.Therefore this kind of mapping can fa-cilitate tacit knowledge diffusion andinfluence the perceived importance ofit in the organization.

V.2. Conclusions and limitations

As everyone use ETK every day tofacilitate the explication of tacit know-ledge, they also are suitable in map-ping tacit knowledge. These are fami-liar concepts although they are soself-evident which leads to lack of re-flections on their meaning. The inter-views during the development processand in the test study show that datacollected with ETK is more compre-hensive, focused and vivid than datafrom traditional deep-interviews on thesame topic without the use of ETK.The respondents were able to narratetheir tacit knowledge using alreadyknown words to them. But to be ableto do this there has to be a cultural as-pect to the language used in the me-thod. The ETK has to be adapted tothe cultural setting, for example therewas several different Swedish transla-tions of the ETK ability or that the ETKcommon sense in Swedish correspondmore to "sensible mind". Mapping tacitknowledge with ETK has offered aunique method to learn about and lo-calize tacit knowledge in an organiza-tion.

The taxonomies facilitate scientificwork on tacit knowledge as well as itseveryday use in professional work-life.A clarification of concepts prevents mi-

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sunderstandings and facilitates the dis-cussion on tacit knowledge. These twotaxonomies indicate that the concept oftacit knowledge often defined as "abs-tract, practical, individual and based onexperience" is defined too narrow toillustrate all different forms tacit know-ledge can take. Both according abstrac-tion and actors included as well as ac-cording activities affected. Thetaxonomies also proved to be helpful inanalyzing the data on the use and im-portance of tacit knowledge.

A further development of this me-thod could be to formalize and use theETK cards to structure processes oftacit knowledge as some of the re-spondent spontaneously did already.This is preferably done when the in-terest is in for example the relation-ships between the parts of the perso-nal knowledge. To be able to use thestructures of ETK cards in a study pho-tographing or sketching could recordthem. Encouraging the respondents totell more stories could also developthe method to be an excellent base forstory telling on tacit knowledge.

A generalization of the use and im-portance of tacit knowledge is perhapsnot justified based on this study butthe ETK instrument can be generallyused for mapping organizational speci-fic tacit knowledge and this may be va-luable both for the individual and theorganization.

The intention was not to explain allthe tacit knowledge, as that still is per-ceived as a mission impossible. Thistechnique has however made it pos-sible to move the barrier of what ofour knowledge we can tell. We havetaken one step into a part of the silentworld of tacit knowledge.

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Appendix 1: Numbered Epitomes of Tacit Knowledge

Ability 47. AttitudeSkills 48. BeliefsEmbodied knowledge 49. Common beliefsCollective ability 50. OpinionCapability 51. PerspectivesCrafts 52. PredictionsBodily skills 53. JudgmentCognitive skills 54. EstimationCommunication skills 55. PerceptCoordination skills 56. Personal experienceInductive skills 57. Common in experienceManagerial skills 58. Pattern of experienceNegotiation skills 59. Best practiceOperational skills 60. Knowledge basePeople skills 61. Masters sureness of actionPhysical skills 62. After-the-fact awarenessSocial skills 63. Artistic visionIntuition 64. Care-whyIntuitive knowledge 65. Common senseInsight 66. CreativityFlashes of insight 67. CultureNon-analytical behavior 68. Embedded knowledgeFlashes of inspiration 69. Get a feel forUnconscious norms 70. Emotional knowingHunch 71. GenresShared beliefs 72. Group's senseAutomatic knowledge 73. ImprovisationMental models 74. Inexplicable mental processesOrganizational memories 75. Inner competenceShared meaning 76. Instinctive reactionsCognitive schemes 77. Personal competenceOrganizational mind 78. RoutinesThinking in practice 79. Routinized knowledgeKnow-how 80. Rule-of-thumbExpertise 81. Sense makingCollective know-how 82. Shared valuesPractical intelligence 83. TalentLife examples 84. TasteOneness of body and mind 85. TechniquesKnow in ones body 86. TricksFeels as... 87. ThoughtsLooks as.... 88. UnderstandingFeeling 89. ValuesGut-feeling 90. Sounds ofNorms 91. People knowledgeShared norms 92. Shared code

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Appendix 2: Examples of the use of taxonomies

Taxonomy 1/ Map of respondent 2

Collective

Individual/Team

Individual

Shared meaningGroup's senseShared valuesValues

Know-how Communication skills Automatised knowledgeFeeling Beliefs Shared norms

Knowledge base OpinionEmotional knowledge Percept

Knowledge baseCare whySense making

Intuition Management skills AttitudeGut feeling NormsExperience Common senseTalent Creativity

Inner competenceUnderstandingPeople knowledge

Taxonomy 2/ Map of respondent 2

Mental Sensuous Social

Intuition Feeling Communication skillsAutomatised knowledge Gut feeling Management skillsOpinion Shared meaningExperience NormsKnowledge base Shared normsCommon sense AttitudesCreativity Beliefs

OpinionPerceptsCare whyEmotional knowingGroup's senseSense makingShared valuesUnderstandingValuesPeople knowledge

Practical

Automatised knowledge

HolisticKnow-How, Inner competence, Talent

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mapping tacit knowledge with 'epitomes

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