An ethnographic study of tacit knowledge in dementia services
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An ethnographic study of the tacit dimensions of knowledge in the management, organisation, and delivery of services to people with dementia.
IRAS ID
140652
Contact name
Sue Molesworth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Keele University
Research summary
The focus for this study is ’tacit’ knowledge. Tacit knowledge is a form of knowledge which is personal to individuals, and includes expertise, know-how, hunches, rules-of-thumb, intuitions and subjective insights. Knowledge in all its forms is generally agreed to be an organisation’s most valuable intangible resource. The particular value of tacit knowledge to organisations is associated with its rarity and hidden-ness which makes it difficult for other competitor organisations to imitate.
Employees exercise tacit knowledge in their everyday practice yet may be unable to articulate precisely what it is. In service organisations such as healthcare and social care knowledge also resides in patients, service users and carers in the form of “embodied“ knowledge. Patients, service users, and carers ’know’ the experience of living with a particular condition in the sense that they know what this feels like and the fears and anxieties that may be involved in this reality. This embodied knowledge has an importance for health and social care practice because when service users’ tacit knowledge is acknowledged it may help to guide treatment, support, and service provision for those individuals.
A key challenge for research in the field of organisational knowledge is to understand the nature and processes of tacit knowledge. In organisations which support people with dementia tacit knowledge may have a particular relevance. For example, for people whose cognitive abilities are declining it is particularly important for staff to know how to interpret and understand signals and cues. To make these services person-centred it is essential that efforts are made to understand the human experience. To do this probably involves practitioners reflecting on their own experience and insights, and critiquing how they themselves might feel in the service user’s situation.REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/0090
Date of REC Opinion
15 Apr 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion