Tacit knowledge sharing in organizations: Evidence from a qualitative analysis of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah’s Agency for Visiting Affairs, Saudi Arabia

Tacit knowledge in organizations has many potential benefits. To unlock them, organizations must skillfully facilitate members’ sharing of tacit knowledge in ways that often do not apply to the sharing of explicit knowledge. The aim of this qualitative study is to clarify both the extent and the form of tacit knowledge sharing in an important Saudi Arabian ministerial agency: the Agency for Visiting Affairs in the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with eleven supervisors in the Agency for Visiting Affairs. The results of these interviews show that the interviewees and their colleagues shared tacit knowledge formally and informally. Formal approaches involved highly regimented job contexts such as job-rotation and job-training programs. Informal approaches involved casual regular gatherings and social-media platforms. Both formal and informal approaches enhanced tacit knowledge sharing within the agency. A further finding from the interviews was that rewards (e.g., employee-of-the-month designations) incentivized knowledge sharing. The study’s overall findings should give organizations in-depth insight into how they can facilitate tacit knowledge sharing in ways that align with specific organizational contexts and goals.