Understanding tacit knowledge loss in public enterprises of South Africa

IF 16.4 1区化学 Q1 CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Accounts of Chemical Research Pub Date : 2024-01-12 DOI:10.4102/sajhrm.v22i0.2229

M. Phaladi, P. Ngulube

{"title":"Understanding tacit knowledge loss in public enterprises of South Africa","authors":"M. Phaladi, P. Ngulube","doi":"10.4102/sajhrm.v22i0.2229","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Orientation: South African state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are facing a perpetual struggle of institutional tacit knowledge loss, which poses a risk to these entities and threatens their sustainability. The research project endeavoured to tackle these challenges from knowledge management (KM) and human resource management (HRM) perspectives and proposes a plethora of integrated knowledge-driven HRM processes to mitigate risks associated with loss of tacit knowledge.Research purpose: The study provides an integrated understanding of the issues relating to the causes of enterprise tacit knowledge loss and extent to which there is recognition of company knowledge loss in selected SOEs in South Africa.Motivation for the study: There is limited research that provides an integrated approach to tacit knowledge loss from KM and HRM standpoints.Research approach/design and method: The exploratory sequential mixed-methods research design was used in this study. In the qualitative phase of this research, data were collected from the annual reports of the SOEs and unstructured interviews with 20 purposively selected human resource (HR) managers, which was subsequently analysed thematically using ATLAS.ti software. The quantitative data from 145 out of 585 respondents were analysed statistically using Statistical Analysis Software (SAS).Main findings: The study revealed that organisational tacit knowledge loss is largely caused by voluntary and involuntary employee turnover and a lack of retention strategies. This adversely affects the knowledge base and the knowledge absorptive and protective capacities of the SOEs.Practical implications/managerial implications: The study concludes that the journey for ensuring effective knowledge transfer and retention of valuable enterprise knowledge starts with the appreciation of knowledge as a key firm-specific strategic issue.Contribution/value-add: This study offers an integrated understanding of the causes of tacit knowledge loss for effective management in SOEs researched interdependently from KM and HRM perspectives.","PeriodicalId":1,"journal":{"name":"Accounts of Chemical Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":16.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Accounts of Chemical Research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v22i0.2229","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Orientation: South African state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are facing a perpetual struggle of institutional tacit knowledge loss, which poses a risk to these entities and threatens their sustainability. The research project endeavoured to tackle these challenges from knowledge management (KM) and human resource management (HRM) perspectives and proposes a plethora of integrated knowledge-driven HRM processes to mitigate risks associated with loss of tacit knowledge.Research purpose: The study provides an integrated understanding of the issues relating to the causes of enterprise tacit knowledge loss and extent to which there is recognition of company knowledge loss in selected SOEs in South Africa.Motivation for the study: There is limited research that provides an integrated approach to tacit knowledge loss from KM and HRM standpoints.Research approach/design and method: The exploratory sequential mixed-methods research design was used in this study. In the qualitative phase of this research, data were collected from the annual reports of the SOEs and unstructured interviews with 20 purposively selected human resource (HR) managers, which was subsequently analysed thematically using ATLAS.ti software. The quantitative data from 145 out of 585 respondents were analysed statistically using Statistical Analysis Software (SAS).Main findings: The study revealed that organisational tacit knowledge loss is largely caused by voluntary and involuntary employee turnover and a lack of retention strategies. This adversely affects the knowledge base and the knowledge absorptive and protective capacities of the SOEs.Practical implications/managerial implications: The study concludes that the journey for ensuring effective knowledge transfer and retention of valuable enterprise knowledge starts with the appreciation of knowledge as a key firm-specific strategic issue.Contribution/value-add: This study offers an integrated understanding of the causes of tacit knowledge loss for effective management in SOEs researched interdependently from KM and HRM perspectives.

查看原文本刊更多论文

了解南非公共企业的隐性知识流失情况

方向：南非国有企业（SOE）长期面临着机构隐性知识流失的问题，这给这些实体带来了风险，并威胁着它们的可持续发展。本研究项目致力于从知识管理（KM）和人力资源管理（HRM）的角度应对这些挑战，并提出了大量以知识为驱动的综合人力资源管理流程，以降低与隐性知识流失相关的风险。研究目的：本研究提供了对企业隐性知识流失原因相关问题的综合理解，以及在南非选定的国有企业中对公司知识流失的认识程度：从知识管理和人力资源管理的角度综合解决隐性知识流失问题的研究十分有限：本研究采用了探索性顺序混合方法研究设计。在定性研究阶段，研究人员从国有企业的年度报告中收集数据，并对 20 名特意挑选的人力资源（HR）经理进行了非结构化访谈，随后使用 ATLAS.ti 软件对这些数据进行了主题分析。使用统计分析软件（SAS）对 585 位受访者中 145 位的定量数据进行了统计分析：研究表明，组织隐性知识的流失在很大程度上是由员工自愿和非自愿离职以及缺乏留任战略造成的。这对国有企业的知识基础以及知识吸收和保护能力产生了不利影响：本研究的结论是，要确保有效的知识转移和保留有价值的企业知识，首先要认识到知识是企业特有的关键战略问题：本研究从知识管理和人力资源管理两个相互依存的视角出发，对国有企业隐性知识流失的原因进行了综合研究，为有效管理提供了思路。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Accounts of Chemical Research 化学-化学综合

CiteScore

31.40

自引率

1.10%

发文量

312

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance. Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.