Tacit Knowledge sharing practices and organisational effectiveness: A review of literature

This review article aims to contribute to our understanding of tacit knowledge sharing practices in an organisational context. Previous studies show that employees possessing valuable tacit knowledge resource are important assets to attain competitive advantage for the organisation. The sharing tacit knowledge within an organisation has a positive relationship with organisational effectiveness. We provide a review of recent literature explaining how some key antecedents of tacit knowledge sharing practices impact on knowledge sharing success. Our model argues that communities of practice, reward, multi disciplinary team and hiring practice are positively related to tacit knowledge sharing practices. We appreciate there are enablers of tacit knowledge sharing practices, such as technology, management support, trust, organisational culture and organisational structure. We suggest that tacit knowledge sharing practices are positively related to organisational effectiveness. Previous studies indicate that tacit knowledge sharing practices affect organisational capabilities. We suggest these organisational capabilities are innovation, absorption and employee's retention. We offer directions for future research to improve and extend future studies on sharing tacit knowledge and organisational effectiveness.