Michael Polanyi and the Role of Tacit Knowledge

2018 ◽  
pp. 134-198
Keyword(s):  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Michael Polanyi

The Modern Aristotle: Michael Polanyi’s Search for Truth against Nihilism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Hoinski ◽  
Ronald Polansky
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Michael Polanyi ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
The Face ◽  
Human Desire ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Theoretical Science

David Hoinski and Ronald Polansky’s “The Modern Aristotle: Michael Polanyi’s Search for Truth against Nihilism” shows how the general tendencies of contemporary philosophy of science disclose a return to the Aristotelian emphasis on both the formation of dispositions to know and the role of the mind in theoretical science. Focusing on a comparison of Michael Polanyi and Aristotle, Hoinski and Polansky investigate to what degree Aristotelian thought retains its purchase on reality in the face of the changes wrought by modern science. Polanyi’s approach relies on several Aristotelian assumptions, including the naturalness of the human desire to know, the institutional and personal basis for the accumulation of knowledge, and the endorsement of realism against objectivism. Hoinski and Polansky emphasize the promise of Polanyi’s neo-Aristotelian framework, which argues that science is won through reflection on reality.

scholarly journals Why do informal markets remain informal: the role of tacit knowledge in an Indian footwear cluster

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yugank Goyal ◽  
Klaus Heine
Keyword(s):  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Informal Markets ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
Long Run ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Propositional Form ◽  
The City

AbstractWhy do informal markets resist formalizing, even when the gains of doing so outweigh its costs in the long run? While a number of responses to this question have been advanced, we discover that part of the reason could be located in the tacit knowledge (attributed to Polanyi, Hayek) embedded in the marketplace, on which market institutions run. This factor is not fully explored yet. Tacit (idiosyncratic, inarticulate, nonconscious) knowledge is acquired personally through experience and cannot be transferred or conveyed to anyone. This is the knowledge we use to act without knowing it in a propositional form. We present the case of one of India’s largest informal footwear cluster, located in the city of Agra. We show that informal markets, hinged on tacit knowledge, cannot evolve easily and therefore may remain locked-in, despite external pressures or incentives to formalize. The study shows that efforts to overcome informality and reaping the benefits of formalized market structures cannot be done without taking cognizance of the sticky intangible knowledge on which these markets rest.

Education at the Crossroads

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Janik
Keyword(s):  
Continuing Education ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Michael Polanyi ◽  
Life Long Learning

Drastic changes in professional education have led to a need to emphasize that education must be a matter of life-long learning. About this there can be no doubt: the question is how should we conceive life-long learning. I argue on the basis of recent research in Sweden that professional knowledge is in its most crucial dimension what Michael Polanyi called ‘tacit knowledge’ and as a result that the humanities are indispensable to any concept of continuing education worth taking seriously.

Reasons of the Heart: A Polanyian Reflection

1978 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry H. Gill
Keyword(s):  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Michael Polanyi

Reasoning about religion would seem to involve both explicit and tacit factors. These latter are what Pascal had in mind when he spoke of the ‘reasons of the heart which the reason knows not of’. Moreover, these reasons of the heart are the more interesting by virtue of being at least the more difficult and perhaps the more crucial. In these pages I want to examine the notion of reasons of the heart from the angle provided by the insights of Michael Polanyi. Space will not permit a review of the major features of Polanyi's crucial concept of tacit knowledge.1 I shall simply introduce and explore certain of these features as they seem relevant to the main concern of the paper. I trust this can be done in such a way as to be both meaningful to the reader and fair to Polanyi.

The death of distance, revisited: disseminative capacity and knowledge transfer

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chansoo Park
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Psychic Distance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tacit Knowledge Transfer ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Foreign Parent

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess how the transfer of explicit and tacit knowledge is affected by the knowledge disseminative capacity of a foreign parent firm, with an emphasis on the moderating role of psychic distance, by developing and testing a theoretical model of international joint venture (IJV) learning. Design/methodology/approach The author tested the hypotheses with survey data collected from 199 IJVs in South Korea, estimating a structural equation model using AMOS 23.0. Findings The authors found that the capacity of the foreign parent to disseminate knowledge to the IJV has a greater impact on explicit knowledge transfer than tacit knowledge transfer. He also found that the relationship between disseminative capacity and explicit knowledge transfer is significantly moderated by psychic distance, but the relationship between disseminative capacity and tacit knowledge transfer is not. Originality/value The results are critical for IJVs and parent firms seeking to improve knowledge transfer, as they establish the importance of parent firms’ disseminative capacities and the moderating role of psychic distance in the process of both tacit and explicit knowledge transfer. This research addresses the research gap regarding disseminative capacity by providing empirical evidence.

Theorizing on the Role of Individualism-Collectivism in Tacit Knowledge Transfer Between Agents in International Alliances

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiran M. Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Interpersonal Relationship ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Cultural Management ◽  
Tacit Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Cross Cultural Management

Taking insights from the extant literatures in cross-cultural management and organizational knowledge management, this paper explores the role of cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism in transfer of tacit knowledge between foreign agents. Tacit knowledge transfer is positively influenced by four key factors: absorptive capacity of target unit, source unit’s motivational disposition to share knowledge, cultural compatibility, and the extent of personal communication between foreign agents. It is proposed that the level of transfer of tactic knowledge between agents from collectivist cultures will be higher than the level of tacit knowledge transfer between agents from individualist cultures. It is also proposed that when there is cultural difference between foreign agents, the level of tacit knowledge transfer involving a source from a collectivist culture and a target from an individualist culture will be lower than transfer between an individualist source and a collectivist target. However, the proposed relationships are influenced by factors such as nature of knowledge, expectations of reciprocity, and the quality of interpersonal relationship between foreign agents. Several ideas for overcoming knowledge transfer obstacles and enhancing the effectiveness of knowledge transfer, as well as research implications of the proposed model are also discussed in detail.

The Tacit Dimension

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Situated Knowledge ◽  
Michael Polanyi ◽  
Conceptual Structures ◽  
Cultural Design ◽  
The World ◽  
Tacit Dimension ◽  
The Many ◽  
Spatial Imagination

In architecture, tacit knowledge plays a substantial role in both the design process and its reception. The essays in this book explore the tacit dimension of architecture in its aesthetic, material, cultural, design-based, and reflexive understanding of what we build. Tacit knowledge, described in 1966 by Michael Polanyi as what we ‘can know but cannot tell’, often denotes knowledge that escapes quantifiable dimensions of research. Much of architecture’s knowledge resides beneath the surface, in nonverbal instruments such as drawings and models that articulate the spatial imagination of the design process. Awareness of the tacit dimension helps to understand the many facets of the spaces we inhabit, from the ideas of the architect to the more hidden assumptions of our cultures. Beginning in the studio, where students are guided into becoming architects, the book follows a path through the tacit knowledge present in materials, conceptual structures, and the design process, revealing how the tacit dimension leads to craftsmanship and the situated knowledge of architecture-in-the-world.

Michael Polanyi’s Understanding of Field Theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-45
Author(s):  
Walter B. Gulick ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Personal Knowledge ◽  
Michael Polanyi

Michael Polanyi introduced the concept of fields in the last several pages of Personal Knowledge. In this essay I examine whether the last-minute addition of fields advances his explanation of anthropogenesis. Polanyi’s view of the role of fields in solving problems and discovery plus their place in ontogenesis and phylogenesis is examined and found not to be wholly satisfactory. Alternative explanations of the factors advancing discovery and problem solving are advanced.

The Role of Human Resources (HR) in Tacit Knowledge Sharing

2017 ◽  
pp. 364-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimiz Dalkir
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Peer To Peer Networks ◽  
Tacit Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Information And Communication

In Knowledge Continuity Management (KCM), knowledge from highly experienced employees leaving the organization is particularly challenging to document, classify and organize so that it can be accessed, understood and used by the successor to that employee. Horizontal knowledge sharing (in the context of peer-to-peer networks) and vertical knowledge transfer (in the context of KCM) are distinguished in order to address some of the conceptual confusion in this field. Both Human Resources (HR) and Knowledge Management (KM) units contribute to KCM but they need to do so in a more integrated fashion. The complementary roles played by the KM and HR teams are analyzed in a case study to show how they can work in tandem to ensure knowledge continuity in an organization. Key recommendations are made on how to implement a comprehensive KCM strategy for tacit knowledge, including the role that can be played by information and communication technologies.

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