Tacit knowledge management: the role of artifacts

This article discusses both the management of tacit knowledge and the tacit approach to knowledge management. Tacit knowledge must be made manageable by being explicated and separated from the knowledge workers, so that the knowledge resources do not go home at night. However, the less knowledge leaving in the evening, the less knowledge will return the following morning. Making the organization as independent as possible of the tacit knowledge of its knowledge workers is an ironic program for knowledge management, since it advocates a reduction of the total resource pool for the sake of managerial control. The article searches for alternatives to knowledge management exercised from a position of control and ownership. A case study of product development is analyzed. This specialized context focuses attention on knowledge mobilization rather than knowledge control and sharing. The artifact provides sufficient pressure for order and coordination to emerge spontaneously. Knowledge management can in such circumstances become tacit without losing its value.