Abstract:
Over the years in employment, staff acquire tremendous amount of tacit knowledge. This
intellectual capital acts as a key driver of creativity, innovation and competitive
advantage. Management of this knowledge facilitates decision making capabilities, builds
learning organizations and stimulates change. There are current changes in the library‟s
work force characterized by search for greener pastures, retrenchments, dismissals, aging
labour force and death. When employees depart, they take their valuable knowledge,
skills and expertise. This results in reduced library efficiency, costly mistakes and
unexpected quality problems. When libraries downsize or reorganize, priceless tacit
knowledge is lost. Lack of cooperation and collaboration; under-utilization of knowledge,
skills and abilities; and lack of knowledge management strategies and policies are factors
that prevent creation of new strategies, new services and deter transfer of tacit knowledge
in libraries. Today, transfer of tacit knowledge is perceived as the key to retaining
competitive advantage hence the need to understand, harness and retain its supremacy.
The aim of this study was to investigate transfer of tacit knowledge among library staff at
KNLS, establish challenges and propose a framework to enhance the transfer of tacit
knowledge. The specific objectives were; to explore knowledge management practices at
KNLS; to find out kinds of tacit knowledge among library staff at KNLS; to explore
communication channels used in transfer of tacit knowledge; to identify challenges and
experiences in transferring tacit knowledge and propose a framework to enhance transfer
of tacit knowledge at KNLS. The study was informed by the Theory of Communities of
Practice. The study adopted a qualitative approach. The population was stratified into
departments and purposive sampling was employed to select various departments and
respondents. Key informants in the study were senior members of management. Data was
collected through face to face interviews. Data collected has been presented and analysed
using qualitative techniques and where necessary, tables, graphs and charts have been
used. The key findings of this study were; KNLS library staff had wealth of accumulated
tacit knowledge and expertise in the field of librarianship; Knowledge management had
not been fully embraced; there was no knowledge management policy; Library staff had
both individual and collective tacit knowledge; Channels used in transfer of tacit
knowledge were semi-formal; Major challenges that hindered transfer of tacit knowledge
were; lack of motivation, lack of knowledge management strategies and policies to guide
knowledge management activities and knowledge hoarding. The study recommends that
KNLS should formulate a knowledge management policy, carry out a knowledge audit,
provide a knowledge sharing culture, motivate staff and transfer of tacit knowledge will
take place simultaneously. The study has proposed a model that can be adopted to
enhance transfer of tacit knowledge.