In this article we address the question of what kind of social engagements provide the proper project work context for tacit knowledge acquisition and sharing to take place. In pursuit of this objective two epistemological assumptions are presented, and the analytical tool for understanding the behaviour of project team members, the Holistic Concept of Man, is illustrated and discussed. Project as a context of tacit knowledge utilisation is discussed, and different factors and situations that affect acquisition and sharing of tacit knowledge in project work, are analysed. The results of the study suggest that the situations, where the members of a project team can interact face-to-face with each other, reinforces tacit knowledge sharing. Also used language, mutual trust and proximity are factors which affect the grade of tacit knowledge utilisation in project work.
Tacit knowledge represents knowledge based on the experience of individuals. It expresses itself in human actions in the form of evaluations, attitudes, points of view, commitments, motivation, etc. Usually it is difficult to express tacit knowledge directly in words, and often the only ways of presenting it are through metaphors, drawings and different methods of expression not requiring a formal use of language. On the practical level many experts are often unable to express clearly all they know and are able do, and how they make their decisions and come to conclusions.
Polanyi [26] encapsulates the essence of tacit knowledge in the phrase “We know more than we can tell”, and provides further clarification of the concept in such commonplace examples as the ability to recognise faces, ride a bicycle or swim without even the slightest idea of how these things are done. Rosenberg's ([29], p. 143) description of traditional technological knowledge, accumulated in crude empirical ways with no reliance upon science, provides a good definition of tacit knowledge in technology companies: “The knowledge of techniques, methods and designs that work in certain ways and with certain consequences, even when one cannot explain exactly why”. Thus, tacit knowledge equals practical know-how.
However, in project work context the significance of tacit knowledge has probably not yet been sufficiently understood. The fact that a great deal of the know-how required, for example, in an engineering project is tied to knowledge that is not written in documents but realised through the expertise and understanding of the project personnel, is not taken into consideration as a whole. Also the fact that projects often last only for short time periods, which means that project people must continuously change their work situations, is not taken well into account.
This study on tacit knowledge utilisation in projects explores the situated character of human understanding and interaction in a project work. It focuses on the relationship between tacit knowledge utilisation and social situations in which it occurs. The study asks what kind of social engagements provide the proper project context for tacit knowledge acquisition and sharing to take place.
In pursuit of this objective we first highlight project as a context of knowledge utilisation. Second, two epistemological assumptions are illustrated to get an insight into knowledge and its formation. Third, our analytical tool, the Holistic Concept of Man, will be introduced and discussed. And fourth, we analyse factors and situations in projects in which tacit knowledge acquisition and sharing take place.
