Abstract
The term knowledge transfer (KT) is often used in a generic sense to include any exchange of knowledge between or among individuals, teams, groups, or organizations, whether intended or unintended.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Motivation-Related Antecedent Factors: Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors have been studied as antecedent factors for effective knowledge transfer. Other factors such as a lack of incentives, a lack of confidence, and the not-invented-here syndrome have been widely discussed, but not widely studied.
Tacit Knowledge: Knowledge that is known in the mind of an individual. Some of it may be verbalized, made explicit, and encoded to become explicit knowledge; some of it may not be explicable so that it must be demonstrated if it is to be transferred, as in a master craftsman showing an apprentice how to do something and the apprentice subsequently practicing what has been demonstrated.
Explicit Knowledge: Knowledge that exists in and is transmittable in formal, systematic language.
Knowledge-Related Antecedent Factors: An arduous relationship, causal ambiguity, shared understanding, knowledge observability, and absorptive capacity are important knowledge-related antecedent factors for effective knowledge transfer.
Knowledge Transfer: The focused, unidirectional communication of knowledge between individuals, groups, or organizations such that the recipient of knowledge (a) has a cognitive understanding, (b) has the ability to apply the knowledge, or (c) applies the knowledge.
Knowledge Sharing: The exchange of knowledge among individuals within and among teams, organizational units, and organizations. This exchange may be focused or unfocused, but it usually does not have a clear objective.