Knowing as Semiosis: Steps Towards a Reconceptualization of ‘Tacit Knowledge’

Stephen Gourlay

Chapter 4 in Organizations as Knowledge Systems, 2004, pp 86-105 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The importance of tacit knowledge in and for organizations is widely attested to. As Baumard (1999: 8, 22) wrote, tacit knowledge is the basis of expertise, it is critical to daily management activities, and is a firm’s source of competitive advantage (see also Wagner and Sternberg, 1986; Lubit, 2001; Ambrosini and Bowman, 2001; Johannessen et al., 2001; Berman et al., 2002; Marwick, 2001). Nevertheless it appears that there are flaws in the argument for tacit knowledge, and that we lack agreement on what the phrase refers to, which bode ill for any attempts to manage it. This chapter will argue that Polanyi has largely been misunderstood, but that his focus on knowing, an activity, and Dewey and Bentley’s (1949) treatment of knowing as semiosis opens the way for a potentially more coherent approach to tacit knowledge.

Keywords: Tacit Knowledge; Explicit Knowledge; Implicit Learning; Phenomenal Quality; National Basketball Association (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-52454-5_5

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230524545_5

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