Tacit and Explicit Strategies in HVTE
Jones, N. B. & Mahon, J. F. (2012) Nimble knowledge transfer in high velocity/turbulent environments. Journal of Knowledge Management, 16(5), 774-788.
In this article Jones and Mahon discuss the connection between explicit and tacit knowledge in organizations of high velocity and turbulent environments. The article highlights the greater importance of tacit knowledge as strategic “decision making” factor in such high velocity environments (HTVEs) over explicit knowledge. Jones and Mahon are seeking to find a better way to predict results in such highpowered environments. They draw examples from successful Military experiences of employing knowledge as an organizational asset (e.g. unique combat situations which are harsh, quick and abrupt and don’t have anything in common with previous ones). At the end of the article Jones and Mahon assemble KM models based on the management of knowledge assets in the Military which are suggested to be reapplied as successful models to businesses in both private and public sectors.
The characteristics of knowledge as an organizational asset are: collection, storage, access, and transfer in a nimble and timely fashion. A disastrous example for knowledge management is given in the case of the BP petroleum explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 which took 11 lives and lead to “the largest oil spill in history.” This incident was preceded by many similar situations, including the Exxon:Valdez spill, where-in no deaths occurred.
“Knowledge development and refinement in turbulent environments is an ongoing, continuous and nearly simultaneous process as the constantly changing environment offers new knowledge and the opportunity for continuous knowledge innovation and dissemination.”
High velocity environments are not turbulent environments, but turbulent environments could comprise high velocity elements, therefore HVTE. By high velocity environments the authors adopt Bourgeois’ and Eisenhardt’s (1988) definition: “those environments in which there is rapid and discontinuous change in demand, competitors, technology, or regulation, so that information is often inaccurate, unavailable, or obsolete.”
The Navy and the Air Force are given as examples of having centralized, bureaucratic, information systems and the Marines and the Army are given as examples of having flexible information systems based on the demand for tacit knowledge. Jones and Mahon suggest that a case where joint Navy-Army or Air Force-Marine operation would be a great way to observe how explicit and tacit knowledge are influencing each other. Decision makers require extensive training in different situations, such as: core knowledge, practice, simulations, adaptability, differing forms of thought, the ability to learn, and the ability to operate collaboratively (Lowell, 2009; Nunamaker et al., 1989). This can be exemplified by the intense training of the Marines; it prepares them with enough knowledge to overcome almost any contingency.
