SOCIAL COGNITION THEORY AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS FRAMEWORKS IN ACCESSING IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE: THE CASE OF SWEDISH ORGANIZATIONS IN SINGAPORE

摘要

Knowledge Management (KM) has been acknowledged as an important resource in organizational studies and Information Technology (IT). But current literature efforts have thus far been channelled more rigorously to the management of tangible or explicit knowledge in the form of databases, intranet services, information systems, coded manuals etc. (Malhotra, 2005, 2004; Hansen, Nohria and Tieraey, 1999; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). What is of no less interesting but more difficult to capture in terms of measurement, analysis and tangible results is the concept of tacit knowledge. Many believe that tacit knowledge residing within an individual is only observable via an individual's actions. While we agree that tacit knowledge in the form of skills and competencies cannot be captured, we think that other types of knowledge such as the 'know how" and the "know who" that we refer to as "implicit knowledge" can be captured and codified. In this paper we aim to illustrate/demonstrate the importance of language in communicating implicit knowledge and how language analysis can be used a means of capturing and accessing implicit knowledge.