Polanyi's Theory Of Knowledge

Narrowing down the definition, another essential step to better understanding knowledge management is by being able to distinguish between various types of knowledge that exist. Overlooking the past centuries, there were many attempts in classifying knowledge according to different fields, dimensions, philosophies and even religious believes (Frost, 2010). Polanyi (1962) often quoted in his literature about organizational and the transferability of knowledge due to his study base on personal knowledge. According to the author, one may know how to accomplish something, without being able to express or transfer the knowledge to others. He also suggests that there is limited capacity for certain knowledge to be transferred (Joia & Lemos, 2010).

(1999) suggested the transfer of organizational knowledge is by “personalization”. In personalization, the emphasis is on tacit knowledge where it is being transferred from one subject to another where knowledge storage system is less required (Joia & Lemos, 2010). Unlike explicit, tacit knowledge is hard to define and difficult to transfer to another person either by verbalizing it or writing it down because it is largely experience-based. This type of knowledge was first developed by Polanyi in 1966 which sometimes also referred to know-how (practical knowledge on how to accomplish something) or implicit knowledge (Brown & Duguid 1998). Polanyi considers tacit knowledge as based on one’s own experience and learning to improve ability or skill to do something or solve problem as long as the sender uses appropriate language, the knowledge can be shared among people (Grant, 2007). Nonaka & Takeuchi (1997) refers tacit knowledge as context dependent because it is hard to communicate and embedded in experience gained from action, commitment and involvement. Tacit knowledge is considered to be the most valuable source of knowledge (Wellman, 2009) because explicit knowledge is simpler in nature and cannot contain the rich experience-based (Frost, 2010). Tacit knowledge can be found in the minds of human stakeholders, also includes attitudes, skills, cultural beliefs and values as well as capabilities and expertise (Botha et al 2008). Although most of the time company relies on the knowledge transferred through written documents, hard data knowledge or information system, MNCs still rely on the accumulated experience of expatriates assignments since tacit knowledge is related directly to the person who developed it (Joia, 2007; Hansen et al., 1999; Leonard and Sensiper, 1998; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1997). Effective transfer of tacit knowledge generally requires extensive personal contact, regular interaction or face-to-face