Expanding the current tacit/explicit knowledge dichotomy encompassing situated and theoretical/normative knowledge: a phenomenological perspective
| Date | 22 December 2022 |
| Pages | 955-972 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-04-2022-0076 |
| Published date | 22 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Sergio Evangelista Silva,André Luís Silva |
Expanding the current tacit/
explicit knowledge dichotomy
encompassing situated and
theoretical/normative knowledge:
a phenomenological perspective
Sergio Evangelista Silva
Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Jo~
ao Monlevade, Brazil, and
Andr
eLu
ıs Silva
Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
Abstract
Purpose –This article introduces a model of knowledge creation in consciousness, the creation of explicit
knowledge in six forms and its register and organisation in documents.
Design/methodology/approach –Assuming thepremise of three realms of reference to knowledge and two
forms of reference to entities, this article, through a phenomenological perspective, deduces a model of the
creation of knowledge in consciousness and the creation of explicit knowledge in six forms and its register in
documents.
Findings –Two basic types of knowledge are introduced: situated knowledge and theoretical/normative
knowledge. Considering three realms of reference of knowledge –the space–time realm, subjectivity realm and
linguistic realm –six general types of knowledge are deduced. Finally, three layers of knowledge organisation
are presented: classification and mapping documents, theoretical/normative documents and documents of
situations.
Practical implications –This article can contribute to the development of more efficient forms of creation of
explicit knowledge, its register in documents and the development of more efficient knowledge organisation
and management systems.
Originality/value –Relying on established perspectives of the realms where subjectivity is immersed, this
article discusses how knowledge is created in consciousness and registered in documents. It also presents a
novel perspective of types of knowledge through the combinationof dimensions, realms of reference and forms
of reference to entities.
Keywords Tacit knowledge, Explicit knowledge, Knowledge organisation, Knowledge theory,
Information theory, Phenomenology, Knowledge management
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
Knowledge emerges in the multiple relations that the subjectivity establishes with itself and
the world (Heidegger, 2015;Husserl, 2006). The subjectivity is formed by the body, including
the brain that generates unconscious and conscious processes throughout the individual’s life
(Popper and Eccles, 1977). In consciousness, there are two basic structures: self-
consciousness, which corresponds to the individual’s consciousness about his existence
(Popper and Eccles, 1977) and the appointment of intentionality to some phenomenon
different from self-consciousness. Intentionality always points to a phenomenon (Husserl,
1985,2006).
In each moment, through intentionality, the individual modulates the attention to a
phenomenon thatcontains entities that can pertain to threepossible realms: facts that emerge
The explicit
knowledge
creation in
six forms
955
The authors thank the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto for supporting this research.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 4 April 2022
Revised 26 August 2022
22 November 2022
Accepted 29 November 2022
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 79 No. 4, 2023
pp. 955-972
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-04-2022-0076
from the perceptionof the space–time realm (Marleau-Ponty,2012), entities that pertain to the
linguistic realm created by other individuals (e.g. newspaper news, a musical composition,
poetry and a mathematical sentence), which emerge from perception (e.g. a book and a
mathematical problem in a paper) and entities that havetheir origin in the subjectivity realm
throughthe creative action of consciousand unconscious processes(e.g. feelings, remembering
of past events,the imagination of future events or fantasticsituations, etc.) (Popperand Eccles,
1977).When intentionally pointsto a specific phenomenon,it can start an interpretative process
in the consciousness to givemeaning to it (Husserl, 1985,2006;Lanigan, 2014).
Besides being a topic of interest in philosophy, knowledge also plays an essential role in
several disciplines, such as epistemology (Sherpherd and Suddaby, 2017;Wackermann, 2006;
Whetten, 1989), knowledge management (Gonzalez, 2016;Ziviani et al., 2019), knowledge
organisation (Hjørland, 2013,2015;Kleineberg, 2017;Mazzocchi, 2018) and information
science (Boell, 2017;Gnoli and Ridi, 2014;Hjørland, 2019). Nonaka et al. (1996) classify
knowledge as tacit and explicit in the knowledge management field. Tacit knowledge
corresponds to the knowledge embedded in the subjectivity acquired through his
experiences. Explicit knowledge is generated using language and is introduced in the
space–time realm through speaking and the register in documents.
According to Polanyi (1966), tacit knowledge relies on unconscious processes that can
automate several skills involving pre-linguistic thinking. The basic assumption of the
division of knowledge into tacit and explicit has since Nonaka et al. (1996),motivated
several studies (e.g. Gonzalez, 2016;Ziviani et al., 2019). Despite several studies that relied
on this dichotomic perspective; there are the following conceptual gaps in the fields of
knowledge management and knowledge organisation: (1) there is still an unclear view
about how the individual creates knowledge and documents and organises it; (2) despite
the perspectives about the existent worlds where individuals create knowledge, artefacts
and intellectual entities (e.g. Gnoli, 2018;Popper and Eccles, 1977), there is still no model of
classification of knowledge according to the types of entities referenced in its content and
(3) as a consequence, it is still unknown how to use the kind of knowledge registered in a
document to develop more efficient knowledge management and knowledge organisation
systems.
Addressing the gaps pointed out above, this article introduces a model of knowledge
creation in consciousness, the creation of explicit knowledge in six forms and its register
and organisation in documents. This is based on the premise of the experiences of
subjectivity in three realms: (1) the space–time realm, (2) the subjectivity realm and (3) the
linguistic realm. Through the phenomenological perspective, this article introduces a
model of knowledge formation based on two dimensions. The first dimension is the realm
of reference to knowledge. It permits three possibilities: knowledge that refers to entities in
the space–time realm, subjectivity realm or linguistic realm. The second dimension is the
form of reference to entities that allows two configurations of knowledge: theoretical/
normative knowledge and situated knowledge. Based on this framework, six types of
knowledge are proposed. Finally, these types of knowledge are associated with the content
of documents and motivated the proposal of a three-layer framework for the organisation
of documents: (1) classification and mapping documents, (2) theoretical/normative
documents and (3) documents of situations.
In addition to this introductory section, Section 2 introduces a view of the realms that
subjectivity interacts with to generate knowledge. Section 3 presents a picture of the
abstraction process and its role in creating different types of knowledge. Section 4 offers a
perspective on the formation of knowledge, the creation of explicit knowledge and its register
in documents. Section 5 illustrates the several concepts introduced in the article through the
case of a hypothetical organisation. Finally, Section 6 presents a discussion of the proposed
concepts under the different perspectives of the literature and the conclusions.
JD
79,4
956
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