UNDERSTANDING TACIT KNOWLEDGE SHARING (TKS) IN NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS (NPOS): AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

• Main Author: Fitria Mustari, Farhanah
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/64223
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Non-profit Organizations (NPOs) have a wide range of social missions and impacts. This organization is supported by volunteers and needs to survive amidst competition and move in a sustainable direction. They see the necessity to be involved in the many stages of creating value for an organization. One of the underlying phenomena of value creation is the tacit knowledge-sharing process. Tacit knowledge is frequently referred to as skill, know-how, and expertise embedded in every individual in an organization. Employee critical skills and competencies are intangible assets and intellectual resources for businesses. As a result, there is a growing interest in how to capture and share tacit knowledge. Social interactions, face-toface meetings, and oral communication are the most common methods and tools to support tacit knowledge sharing. However, academic research and scientific publications on tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) in non-profit organizations in Indonesia are still minimal and even rare. The authors believe that the lack of attention paid by non-profit organizations or social communities to the strategic management of their knowledge is concerning. Because it is difficult to codify, formulate, or express tacit knowledge, it is one of the less explored areas of knowledge management. It underlines the importance of researching tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) in non-profit organizations in Indonesia, which are often unaware that this process has been carried out. By considering this problem, this study aims to; (1) Describe the practice of TKS in NPOs in Indonesia and (2) Explore several issues, such as the factors driving the occurrence of TKS in NPOs carried out by volunteers. This research flows in five stages: 1) phenomena observation, literature review, and problem identification; 2) case selection; 3) data collection and transcription; 4) coding and data analysis, and 5) writing finalization. Exploratory research was chosen with ten respondents to answer this research, with one non-profit organization selected as a research site study. The data collection lasted from October 2021 until January 2022 and explored in-depth interviews with volunteers using online platforms and open-ended questions to acquire deep insights into the TKS issue. Thematic analysis has been carried out using data coding to extract themes. Research findings show that individual factors such as altruistic behavior to inter-team trust encourage someone to share tacit knowledge. Additionally, organizational factors such as organizational culture that emphasizes openness, mentor relationships in the organization, and periodic appreciation can increase individual capacity to share knowledge. Tacit knowledge is currently a hot topic in knowledge communication development. It is not easy to convey this type of knowledge. It can only happen if people work together in a collaborative team environment and are willing to share their knowledge. The findings indicate that several additional methods and tools are used in addition to those described in the literature. Several ii conditions concerning attitude toward knowledge sharing and workplace culture must be met to successfully implement the tools and methods. The finding was built to help understand the Tacit Knowledge Sharing (TKS) process in non-profit organizations and can advise non-profit organization managers to pay greater attention to their volunteers' motivators and organizational practices when adopting tacit knowledge-sharing routines. The results also shed light regarding the practiced strategy of tacit knowledge sharing model innovation process in Non-Profit Organizations. It is essential as a reference for knowledge management-focused future study and as guidance for managers in a non-profit organization to enhance tacit knowledge-sharing practices.