Purpose -Tacit knowledge is often difficult to define, given its inexpressible characteristics. Literature review highlights the impact of tacit knowledge on certain knowledge management topics and these include organizational learning, intellectual capital, knowledge management strategy and so forth, but some research gaps remain. The paper aims to propose directions for future research in this domain of discourse.Design/methodology/approach -A review of existing studies highlights some gaps in the literature on the role of tacit knowledge, which is followed by questions for future research.Findings -Given the richness of tacit knowledge discourse, the authors believe that the proposed questions offer avenues for scholars to explore and develop greater understanding of the role of tacit know-how in certain knowledge management topics.Research limitations/implications -The authors acknowledge that there are certain limitations to this paper, namely, focusing on the review of tacit knowledge and not on other forms of knowledge. The review presents the role of tacit knowledge and its use in the context of knowledge management related topics. Finally this study proposes only future research directions that are far from being exhaustive, rather than presenting field study results.Originality/value -This paper reviews the existing literature on how tacit knowledge is perceived and used in certain knowledge management areas. Reviewing the current literature uncovers a number of gaps regarding the role of tacit knowledge.

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Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI), Spring-8, Sayo Hyogo 679-5198, Japan b S Supporting Information S elf-assembly of molecules and nanoparticles into tailored structures is a promising strategy for production and design of materials with new functions. [1][2][3][4] The spontaneous organization of the nanoscale building blocks into periodically packed structures is controlled by thermodynamic constraints and specific boundary conditions resulting in systems that commonly span a rich energy landscape.2,5 Modulation of the particle interactions has a pivotal influence on the formed structures and the quality of nanocrystal mesocrystals. [6][7][8] Tuning the magnitude and directionality of the interparticle forces between, e.g., dipolar nanoparticles by applying electrical or magnetic fields may also have a profound effect on the assembly process and the resulting structures of the nanoparticle mesocrystals. 9-13The early work on self-assembly of nanoparticles focused on spheres, with hexagonally packed arrays being produced from monodisperse spheres 14,15 and more recently nanoparticle arrays with complex structures by mixing monodisperse spheres of different sizes. [16][17][18][19][20] Much less experimental work has been reported on the design of suitable conditions for formation of ordered arrays and full characterization of the (three-dimensional) structures formed from nonspherical objects. 21-23Here, we show how superparamagnetic iron oxide nanocubes with a well-defined shape and size can be assembled into wellordered arrays and how the three-dimensional structure can be determined by a combination of grazing incidence small-angle scattering (GISAXS) and electron microscopy. We demonstrate how a small deviation from a perfect cubic geometry of the nanoparticle building blocks can dictate the symmetry of the array and show for the first time that nonspherical nanoparticles can assemble into a highly ordered body-centered tetragonal structure. Energy models that account for the directionality and magnitude of the van der Waals and dipolar interactions as a function of the degree of truncation of the nanocubes were used to evaluate the importance of the directional dipolar forces in the self-assembly process and to predict the occurrence of simple cubic and body-centered tetragonal mesocrystal structures.Iron oxide nanocrystals have attracted much interest for a range of applications because of the combination of tunable magnetic properties and controllable surface properties. 24-28The oleic acid capped nanocrystals were prepared by a modified nonhydrolytic synthesis approach, 9,25 purified into a nanoparticle paste, and dispersed in toluene to a concentration of about 10 14 particles/mL (see Supporting Information for details). Germanium wafers were cleaned by sonication in toluene, followed by ethyl acetate and ethanol (30 min each). Fast evaporation of the carrier solvent was achieved by spin-coating an excess amount of toluene dispersion, at 1000 rpm for 20 s. Evaporation was slowed down...

Tacit knowledge definitions tend to be extremely varied. Some argue that tacit knowledge is precisely that. Others feel that only time and effort prevent all tacit knowledge from eventually becoming articulated. For the purposes of our research "tacit knowledge", in practice at least, encompasses a medium ground, being comprised of articulable and inarticulable subsets. Along the lines of Weber (1997), we have formalised a meaning for this "tacit knowledge" and for comparison have completed a content analysis of the literature to determine what other researchers understand "tacit knowledge" to mean.

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Knowledge management (KM) has matured to the point that many organisations either believe they have such practices in place or at least understand they are relevant to the knowledge work commonly undertaken in many industries. What is lacking from the literature, however, is a solid foundation for the philosophies underpinning KM and particularly for how tacit knowledge informs the KM space. Research over decades shows tacit knowledge underpins all other forms of knowledge, enabling the interpretation and judicious application of knowledge, leading (at its highest levels) to the concept of wisdom. As an academic discipline, artificial intelligence (AI) was established before KM, has been grounded in the computing discipline for many decades, and is applied broadly in many domains. This paper explores how AI can inform the KM debate. Rather than simply provide examples of AI success stories as applied to KM in practice, it explores the theoretical and practical limitations of AI and KM in unison, providing at the same time a strong epistemological understanding of both disciplines as a means of furthering the knowledge debate, with particular emphasis on the role of tacit knowledge within this jurisdiction.

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Much knowledge management (KM) literature is focused on the improvements that can be made to organisations if they use their knowledge resource effectively. A great deal of knowledge rests in the heads of employees. Little to date has discussed the differences in soft knowledge utilisation amongst different generations of employees particularly in the IT sector. By generations we refer to the Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. Our study establishes that there were a number of differences between how the three Generations would deal with certain IT soft knowledge situations. These differences were along the following lines; issues of status in the workplace; need for recognition, typically by younger employees; issues of commitment to the workplace and finally idealism in the place of work.