An Analysis of Effect of Use of Tacit Knowledge Transfer Techniques on Organizational Performance of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization Researchers

Abstract

Tacit knowledge (TK) transferred among employees drives organizations’ effectiveness. However, it is not clear how use of TK transfer techniques affects the performance of agricultural researchers, and how social and organizational factors affect TK transfer among themselves. This study assessed the effect of use of TK transfer techniques on performance of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) researchers and how the social and organizational factors affect TK transfer among them. This study used a descriptive survey research design, cluster sampling, a semi-structured questionnaire to collect data from 191 researchers in KALRO research centers, and SPSS Version 20 to analyze the data using the Likert scale and Chi-square test. Collaborative research, workshops and seminars were the most used and adequate techniques for transferring TK and enhancing performance among KALRO researchers. Cognitive Self-Motivation (93.2%) was the most useful and performance enhancing type of TK. Management of agricultural research projects (90.1%) was the performance indicator that researchers were most enabled to meet by TK. The social factors that supported TK transfer most among researchers were Mutual Trust (83.2%) and Length of Service (77.5%) while organizational factors were ICT (80.6%) and space (75.9%). There was a significant association between TK and researcher’s performance; Cognitive Self-Motivation TK (x2=62.66), Collective TK (x2=53.78), Global TK (x2=48.70), Local TK (x2=79.307) and Relational TK (x2=46.77) all with a p-value of (p=0.000). There was a significant association between social at (x2 =21.12) with a p-value of (p=0.05) and organizational factors at (x2=27.58) with a p-value of (p=0.001), and researchers’ performance. In conclusion, TK transfer enhances agricultural researchers’ performance and most social and organizational factors support it. KALRO needs to enhance further the social and organizational factors that support TK transfer among its researchers, and encourage more use of the most employed TK transfer techniques in enabling the management of research projects and the writing of research fund winning proposals through workshops, seminars and knowledge management policy. Keywords: Agricultural Researcher, Tacit Knowledge, Transfer Techniques, Performance, Social and Organizational factors