Sharing tacit knowledge and organizational learning in Portuguese voluntary fire fighters corps

Oliveira, Márcio; Pinheiro, Paulo

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/8667

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Authors

Oliveira, Márcio

Pinheiro, Paulo

Abstract(s)

The growing importance of the third sector and its institutions justifies the attention of the academic community, in order to establish and adopt best practices aimed at fulfilling its missions and reinforcing organizational learning. However, there are few studies on the importance of the intensity and availability for the sharing of tacit knowledge, as a form of organizational learning, directed to organizations of this typology. The option of conducting a case study such as the Portuguese fire brigades (FB’s), unique in their action and identity, accompanies the need increasingly recognized by Portuguese society to enable these organizations to achieve the best performance to tragic events in recent years in this country. Thus, by placing the focus of the study on the intensity and availability of tacit knowledge sharing, and on past learning, by FB commanders in Portugal, we have identified as objectives, to identify if there is an intention and tacit knowledge sharing available to the commanders of FB’s and realize if this intention and availability is matched in what is the treatment of knowledge obtained by past learning. Eight interviews were conducted with commanders of fire brigades in the central region of Portugal, under the snowball methodological technique, for a qualitative study. It was possible to conclude that the commanders of these FB’s tend to demonstrate the intensity and availability of tacit knowledge sharing, but that this is not reflected in their practices derived from past learning. As limitations of the research, it should be noted that the present research focuses exclusively on the sharing of tacit knowledge, not considering other forms of knowledge. As a case study, although with heterogeneous organizations, the same cannot be replicated to different realities.