Tacit Knowledge and Environmental Management
Introduction
During the last decade, environmental management has been the subject of a growing number of studies that have shown the complexity and challenges involved in integrating ecological concerns with the daily operations of companies. Once seen as the duty of a specialised department, the control of environmental impacts is now viewed as the responsibility of all employees, who are called on to integrate these issues into their daily activities. This integration logic requires the harnessing of wide-ranging knowledge as well as the learning of new, less polluting practices. Some companies have taken their employees’ learning and daily commitment and turned them into the main thrust of their environmental policy. For instance, Interface, which manufactures carpets, textiles and architectural products, asked its 6,300 employees to take part in environmental work groups called QUEST (Quality Utilising Employee Suggestions and Teamwork).1 The goal of these groups, established in all plants and sectors, was to encourage suggestions and disseminate knowledge about how to reduce discharge and improve environmental practices. An ambitious training programme, One World Learning, was set up to promote team spirit and the sharing of knowledge in the search for environmental solutions. Since 1994, the initiatives stemming from this sharing and harnessing of employees’ environmental knowledge have enabled the firm to save nearly $80 million while significantly reducing the consumption of raw materials and the discharge of waste.
These environmental initiatives, which have allowed Interface to become a world leader in industrial ecology, are not solely based on formal knowledge and on technical projects managed by the environmental department. Above all, they call upon the know-how of all employees and the continuous improvements made in the company’s daily practices. This continuous improvement approach, which is similar to the logic of Kaizen in matters of quality, would not be possible without harnessing tacit knowledge concerning the identification of pollution sources or the development of preventive solutions. The relevance of this knowledge can be explained, in particular, by the physical proximity of workers to the procedures. This direct daily contact with the equipment that is at the source of contaminant discharge helps develop implicit knowledge that can significantly assist industrial organisations in their attempts to prevent pollution.
Even though tacit knowledge is increasingly considered as an essential dimension of “learning organisations”, few concrete examples of its manifestations, usefulness and role in firms have been developed, particularly in the area of environmental management. In fact, despite its highly empirical nature, tacit knowledge is seen most often as something hidden, abstract and almost inaccessible. The word tacit comes from the Latin tacitum, meaning that which is secret, hidden or mysterious. Polanyi, the father of contemporary thinking on this subject, also refers to “implicit”, “inarticulate” or “personal knowledge”.2
This article has two main objectives. The first is to show, through examples, the role and practical applications of tacit knowledge in the management of environmental issues. The second is to analyse how companies can manage this knowledge, in particular with regard to the consultation of employees, the codifying of implicit knowledge, and the promotion of empowerment and “custom-made” training. The research is based on case studies conducted in Canadian industrial companies. We will begin by explaining the central role played by knowledge management in the environmental department activities of industrial companies. We will then define the concept of “tacit knowledge” based on a literature analysis. The research’s methodology will be explained in the third section. Finally, in sections four and five, we will concentrate on the usefulness of tacit knowledge developed by production employees as well as the challenges involved in trying to explain, transfer and use this knowledge within companies. This will be demonstrated using case studies of the chemical factories we visited.
Section snippets
Building a green learning organisation
The elasticity and inclusive character of the concept of “learning organisations” can be expressed in different definitions and approaches which all emphasise, to various degrees, the growing interest in knowledge management. After having noted the plurality and heterogeneity of work on this theme, Quintas, Lefrere and Jones define knowledge management as “the process of continually managing knowledge of all kinds to meet existing and emerging needs, to identify and exploit existing and
Rediscovering tacit knowledge: the human and implicit aspects of environmental management
Even though it is central to the activities of the environmental department of companies, explicit knowledge is not the sole dimension involved in the green learning of organisations. Indeed, all types of learning have implicit and subjective aspects which often go ignored or unacknowledged in companies.10 The very recognition and promotion of these competencies clashes with their implicit, intangible and diffuse nature in the organisation. It is a complex challenge for managers to take this
Research methods
Recent studies that have attempted to define tacit knowledge have provided few concrete examples of its nature and role in organisational learning. This type of knowledge is hard to study precisely because it is tacit: it is difficult to observe directly and measure quantitatively. In the present study, tacit knowledge may be defined as know-how based on observations, routines and work experience which helps to improve environmental management but whose empirical, context-specific and personal
Mobilising tacit environmental knowledge
The close interdependence between the implicit and explicit aspects of the learning process makes it difficult to describe “pure” tacit knowledge. Nonetheless, numerous examples of knowledge that can be considered as “implicit” on the “tacit-explicit” continuum came out of the interviews and observations we conducted. Indeed, the simple act of questioning the operators about environmental issues tended to bring out knowledge that existed previously in a latent and implicit manner. In other
Is tacit knowledge manageable?
The ways in which organisational knowledge is managed have already been the subject of numerous studies which have attempted to demonstrate how managers can make intelligent use of know-how in the company.27 Though this pragmatic approach is well suited to formal information and knowledge, it would, however, seem to be less well fitted to grasping implicit and intangible knowledge. Indeed, recognising and taking into account tacit knowledge calls for profound changes in terms of traditional
Conclusion
The goal of this article is to show the relevance of tacit knowledge in environmental management and explore how institutions can manage this knowledge. The environmental management of companies would appear to be an interesting analysis framework to understand how tacit knowledge emerges and can be used to improve an organisation’s practices. The creation of this knowledge definitely appears to be an emerging process that is related to personal work experiences that cannot be easily and
Olivier Boiral is a management professor in the Faculty of Business Administration of Université Laval. Most of his research focuses on the environmental management of companies and he also does consulting work on these questions. In 1996, at the École des HEC de Montréal, he presented his Ph.D. thesis on the human and preventive dimension of environmental management in Québec’s chemical industry. He has published numerous articles in academic and managerial journals.
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Olivier Boiral is a management professor in the Faculty of Business Administration of Université Laval. Most of his research focuses on the environmental management of companies and he also does consulting work on these questions. In 1996, at the École des HEC de Montréal, he presented his Ph.D. thesis on the human and preventive dimension of environmental management in Québec’s chemical industry. He has published numerous articles in academic and managerial journals.