Explicit Knowledge

Explicit knowledge is codified, and

• can be precisely and formally articulated
• is easy to codify, document, transfer, share, and communicate

Its ready accessibility has lead to many ways of using it as a management tool.

"Explicit is systematic and easily communicated in the form of hard data or codified procedures. It can be articulated in formal language including grammatical statements. This kind of knowledge can thus be transmitted across individuals formally and easily. Tacit knowledge is not available as a text and may conveniently be regarded as residing in the heads of those working in a particular organisational context. It involves intangible factors embedded in personal beliefs, experiences, and values." (Pan and Scarbrough, 1999 p 362)

'While tacit knowledge can be possessed by itself, explcicit knowledge must rely on being tacitly understood and applied, hence all knowledge is either tacit or rooted in tacit knowledge. A wholly explicit knowledge is unthinkable ' according to Polanyi (1966).

Retrieved from OR TOPICS at  

http://www.orsoc.org.uk/about/topic/projects/kmwebfiles/explicit_and_tacit.htm