Tacit Knowledge And Human Centred Systems: The Key To Managing The Social Impact Of Technology

In recent years the concept of knowledge management has become an important feature in automation literature, in particular as it relates to ICT (information and communications technology). To date, this literature focuses primarily upon knowledge, which can be extracted, explicitly stated and codified into large-scale databases or other knowledge capture devices and mechanisms. However, it is readily apparent that this notion of knowledge is extremely limited. In particular, in order to understand, appreciate and effectively design and manage complex technologies, we need to focus more on less-concrete forms of knowledge. These types of knowledge are often termed ‘tacit’ knowledge in order to emphasise their hidden nature. This paper reviews the current literature on tacit knowledge and relates it to current research and practise in AMAT and ICT. It then presents some empirical evidence to highlight the importance of tacit knowledge in engineering design and development work, and suggests a tacit knowledge-based framework.