Tacit knowledge sharing in online environments i buunk
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The document discusses a study examining how social media facilitates tacit knowledge sharing among public sector professionals. It provides background on the study, which is part of a larger doctoral thesis. The study aims to understand how social media enables tacit knowledge sharing and what contextual factors support this. A literature review identified themes of social media affordances and the concept of "Ba," which refers to a shared context for knowledge exchange. An online survey of over 1,000 professionals found that a social platform facilitated learning, expertise sharing, problem-solving, and innovation by enabling interactions and visibility of tacit knowledge, though it did not notably increase productivity. Findings provided insights into how social interactions and different types of "Ba" support tacit knowledge
Tacit knowledge sharing in online environments i buunk
- 1. TACIT KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS: locating 'Ba' within a platform for public sector professionals. Centre for Social Informatics - School of Computing - Edinburgh Napier University Iris Buunk, Prof. Hazel Hall, Dr Colin F. Smith @irisbuunk 27-30 June 2017
- 2. CONTENT Background Themes Social media affordances The concept of 'Ba' Survey implementation Findings Learning processes Expertise sharing Problem-solving Innovation Productivity New understandings Questions & Discussion
- 3. BACKGROUND Part of larger doctoral study Easier, faster, better? How social media facilitate the sharing of tacit knowledge between employees within public sector organisations. Paper based on preliminary results from survey. Literature review Online surveyMethodology Interviews Data analysis Thesis
- 4. BACKGROUND Research Questions How do social media facilitate the sharing of tacit knowledge between employees? To what extent do social media bring new capabilities in the sharing of tacit knowledge? Which situated factors may provide the appropriate context for using social media to enhance tacit knowledge sharing practices?
- 5. TACIT KNOWLEDGE? Assumptions Intuition Ideas Understanding Routines Expertise Skills Know-how Problem solving Best practices Tips & Tricks Mental models Emotions Viewpoints Information Data Documentation Reports Tacit Explicit Technical dimension Cognitive dimension (Nonaka, 1994; Panahi, Watson, Partridge, 2013)
- 6. LITERATURE REVIEW THEMES •Social media affordances (Panahi, 2013) – Facilitation of tacit knowledge sharing through social media affordances. •The concept of ‘Ba’ (Nonaka, 1998) – Contextual space shared with others from which relationships emerge, and in which knowledge is exchanged.
- 7. SOCIAL MEDIA AFFORDANCES (SMA) Based on the work of Panahi, Watson, Partridge, (2013) Initiate informal discussions among experts Informal discussions help people with similar skills and interests to discuss & solve issues (Hildrum, 2009) Foster collective intelligence Enable the connection and addition of employees’ intelligence which consequently enhances collective intelligence (Razmerita, Karchner and Nabeth, 2014). Make tacit and personal knowledge visible Facilitate online social interactions & help employees discover sources of expertise within the network (Mansour et al., 2011) Decrease time & effort needed for sharing knowledge Help in communicating tacit knowledge and reduce time & efforts needed for knowledge codification (Gordoyeva, 2010)
- 8. THE CONCEPT OF 'BA‘
- 9. THE CONCEPT OF 'BA‘ Characteristics 1. Originating Ba 2. Interacting or Dialoging Ba 3. Cyber or Systemizing Ba 4. Exercising Ba Concept invented by Nonaka & Konno (1998). Inspired by philosopher Kitaro Nishida 場 Contextual space shared with others from which relationships emerge, and in which knowledge is exchanged.
- 10. Socialisation Externalisation CombinationInternalisation Existential Reflective Synthetic Originating Ba Interacting Ba (Dialoging) Exercising Ba Cyber Ba (Systemizing ) Face-to- face On-the- site peer-to-peer Group-to- groupSystemic From To Tacit/ tacit Explicit/ Tacit Tacit/ Explicit Explicit/ Explicit SECI model Ba model THE 'BA‘ & SECI MODEL
- 11. Why does it matter? Tacit knowledge is highly contextual. (Koskinen, Pihlanto, Vanharanta, 2003; Jakubik, 2007; Krishnaveni & Sujatha, 2012)
- 12. 'Ba' in the literature • Nonaka, Konno (1998). The Concept of “Ba”: bulding a foundation for knowledge creation. California Management Review, 40 • Choo, W., Chun, & Alvarenga Neto, R. (2010). Beyond the ba: managing enabling contexts in knowledge organizations. Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(4) • Martin-Niemi, F., & Greatbanks, R. (2010). The ba of blogs: enabling conditions for knowledge conversion in blog communities. Vine, 40(1) Bartolacci, C., Isidori, D., Cristalli, C. Niccolini, F. (2016). Ba evolution. Virtual spaces for inter-organizational knowledge creation. Journal of Knowledge Management, 20(4)
- 13. RESEARCH DESIGN Population • Members of an online social platform of knowledge sharing hosted by UK public service. • Respondents based in various public & 3rd sector organisations (national & local Government, health service, charities) mainly in Scotland.
- 14. RESEARCH DESIGN Online survey • Demographic questions • Digital usage of social media features • Knowledge sharing practices (Lickert scale)
- 15. RESEARCH DESIGN Data collection • Survey opened during 6 weeks (July-August 2016) • 1062 respondents Data analysis • Descriptive statistics • Smart Survey & Excel • Fuller analysis to follow (correlations, T-test) after the analysis of qualitative data
- 16. Findings Social platform KHub enables the sharing of tacit knowledge by facilitating: 1. Learning processes 2. Expertise sharing 3. Problem-solving 4. Innovation 5. Productivity
- 17. 1.Learning processes 58% indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, against a small number (12%) who disagreed or strongly disagreed Learning process occurs during knowledge conversion between tacit & explicit knowledge and through social interactions. “On KHub I find it easy to develop my learning.” This correlates with the Exercising Ba
- 18. 2.Expertise sharing 58 % indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement against a small number (11%) who disagreed or strongly disagreed. Sharing of knowledge and expertise facilitated by online communities of practice. ‘On Knowledge Hub I find it easy to share my knowledge and expertise’. This correlates with the Interacting Ba
- 19. 3.Problem solving 63 % indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, against a small number (10 %) who disagreed or strongly disagreed. 'On Knowledge Hub I find it easy to request help from others’ . ‘On Knowledge Hub I find it easy to help others to solve their problems’ 53 % indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, against a small number (9%) who disagreed or strongly disagreed. This correlates with the Interacting Ba Collaborative media tools can facilitate problem-solving when employees look for answers among the online community of users.
- 20. 4.Innovation 52 % indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, against a small number (14%) who disagreed or strongly disagreed. The discovery of ideas can only occur when those are shared with other members of a community and through social interactions. This correlates with the Interacting Ba ‘On Knowledge Hub I find it easy to discover new ideas.’
- 21. 5.Productivity Less than a third (30.3%) of the respondents have agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, less than a half (42.90%) neither disagreed nor agreed. This does not seem to support what is suggested in the literature. ‘Knowledge Hub has helped me to save time at work.’
- 22. DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERSTANDING OF SMA Panahi et al., 2012 Findings SMA initiate informal discussions among experts Learning process Problem solving SMA foster collective intelligence Innovation Expertise sharing SMA make tacit and personal knowledge visible Learning process, Problem solving Innovation Expertise sharing SMA decrease time & effort needed for sharing knowledge Productivity
- 23. WHAT IS THE LINK? Social interactions Expertise sharing Informal discussions Collective intelligence Skills visibility Innovation Problem solving
- 24. WHAT IS THE LINK? Social interactions facilitate the sharing of tacit knowledge But in which contextual environment?
- 25. Socialisation Externalisation CombinationInternalisation Physical Mental Synthetic Virtual Originating Ba Interacting Ba Exercising Ba Cyber Ba Face-to-face On-the-site peer-to-peer Group-to-group DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERSTANDING OF THE ‘BA’ Tacit Tacit Explicit Explicit 2. Expertise sharing 3. Problem solving 4. Innovation 1. Learning process ?
- 26. Thank you. Any questions? Next conference: 18th European Conference on Knowledge Management 7 – 8 September 2017 Universitat, Internacional de Catalunya, Spain ‘Skills in Sight: How Social Media Affordances Increase Network Awareness.’
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