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Panahi, Sirous, Watson, Jason, & Partridge, Helen (2012) Social Media
and Tacit Knowledge Sharing: Developing a Conceptual Model. In World
Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET), Paris, France, pp. 10951102.
This file was downloaded from: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/50068/
Explicit knowledge
- Articulated,
structured
and
documented
- Learnt
through
instruction,
recitation, or repetition
- Easy
to
recognize,
codify,
formalize,
store,
share,
communicate, and use
- Can be found in books, journals,
databases, etc.
- Consciously accessible
- Know-that, know what
- Academic knowledge
provided an effective channel for social interaction and realtime conversations between users in forms of chatting,
video/telephone conferencing, etc.
Networking: Building a community of users is another main
characteristic of social media [28], [30], [33]. It has enabled
people with common interest gather together in an online
space, locate each other, share their profiles, brand
themselves, develop relationships, discuss freely about their
everyday issues, and transfer their knowledge and experiences.
Establishing a knowledge community and expert locating
services in social media help to implicit knowledge sharing
among individuals [34].
Multimedia oriented: Another main characteristics of
social media applications is enabling users to store and share
multiple content forms such as text, image, audio, video, and
other formats in an interactive and easy way [35], [36]. This
provides opportunity for users to easily share their own
created multi-media files, tag, and comment on them in social
web sites. As a result, millions of multimedia contents have
been exchanged among individual users since social media
platforms get launched. YouTube, Flicker, and various
Podcast services are examples of social media for multimedia
sharing which allows people to share variety of video and
photo files with different subjects [37].
User friendly: Social media is best known for ease of use
applications that do not require high technical proficiency or
long term formal courses [29], [38-40]. They are easily
accessible and open for everybody to try and participate in any
aspects of existing facilities [33], [40]. Simple, dynamic,
attractive, joyable, easy for multimedia publication,
customized, and cost effective are some of the main attributes
are given for social media applications [24], [29], [38]. There
are rarely any constrains in accessing or using social media
tools [33].
The combination of those features and associated tools have
made social media good channel for knowledge sharing
activities. It helps people get connected, communicate with
each other, build relationship, develop trust, and share their
knowledge. It supports knowledge creation, distribution, and
visibility of knowledge more effectively compared to
traditional knowledge management systems [34].
IV. IT AND TACIT KNOWLEDGE SHARING?
There is a major debate among researchers about whether
information technology (IT) can have a role in tacit knowledge
sharing among individuals. Some, particularly before social
web researchers, insist that tacit knowledge sharing by using
IT is too limited if it is not absolutely impossible to achieve
[3], [41-43]. Others argue that IT can facilitate tacit
knowledge sharing although it may not be as rich as face-toface interactions [5], [9], [44-52].
Each school has its own reasons and explanations.
However, perspectives of the second school (advocators of IT
contribution to tacit knowledge sharing) seem more reasonable
and acceptable than the earlier one. Tacit knowledge cannot be
regarded as a binary digit (0 or 1), pure tacit or pure explicit.
The notion of the degree of tacitness or the degree of
A. Social Interaction
Social interaction in forms of face-to-face communication,
conversation, verbalization, discussing, and dialoguing has
been determined as a main perquisite for tacit knowledge
sharing in almost all reviewed literature (See Table II). For
instance, Polanyi [55], who first originated the term tacit
knowledge, asserts that close interaction is necessary for tacit
knowledge transferring amongst individuals. Murray and
Peyrefitte [52] deem interpersonal interactions necessary for
efficient diffusion of tacit knowledge. Yang and Farn [58]
have also viewed tacit knowledge transferring as a natural
process of social interaction. Song [60] conceives that face-toface communication has potential to give immediate feedback
and make multiple cues available to people which in turn
facilitate tacit knowledge sharing. Furthermore, work related
discussions during interactions have also considered as an
introduction to tacit knowledge sharing.
On the other side, social interaction is one of the main
characteristics of social web initiatives (See Table II). Zheng
et al. [38] defines social media as a network technologies
based media that support social interaction, social information
aggregation and sharing. Lietsala and Sirkkunen [61]
recognize one of the five main features of social web sites as a
place for social interaction. Kamel Boulos and Wheele [64]
argued that emergence of web 2.0 tools have enriched online
social interaction by integrating human approach to
interactivity on the web, better support of group
interaction, and fostering a greater sense of community.
Boateng et al. [62] emphasize too on interactivity and
communicative aspects of web 2.0 tools.
Some authors connected social interactions in social media
with tacit knowledge sharing. For example, Marwick [49]
argues that online discussion forums, chat rooms and other
real-time online interactions can facilitate effectively tacit
knowledge sharing among team members. Lai [7] has also
confirmed possibility of tacit knowledge transferring in
internet discussion and chat sessions. Wahlroos [63] observed
that the emerging social media represent a significant potential
in enhancing tacit knowledge sharing by providing live
conversations, relationship networking and collaboration
among individuals.
As a result, it can be argued that there is a commonality
between job-specific social interactions in social media sites
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