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Aryani, O., Yazdani, H., Ramezan, M. (2025). Identifying and explaining the mechanism of tacit knowledge sharing among University of Tehran employees in the development of successors. Electronic and Cyber Defense, 8(2), 105-133. doi: 10.47176/smok.2025.1881
Omid Aryani; Hamidreza Yazdani; Majid Ramezan. "Identifying and explaining the mechanism of tacit knowledge sharing among University of Tehran employees in the development of successors". Electronic and Cyber Defense, 8, 2, 2025, 105-133. doi: 10.47176/smok.2025.1881
Aryani, O., Yazdani, H., Ramezan, M. (2025). 'Identifying and explaining the mechanism of tacit knowledge sharing among University of Tehran employees in the development of successors', Electronic and Cyber Defense, 8(2), pp. 105-133. doi: 10.47176/smok.2025.1881
Aryani, O., Yazdani, H., Ramezan, M. Identifying and explaining the mechanism of tacit knowledge sharing among University of Tehran employees in the development of successors. Electronic and Cyber Defense, 2025; 8(2): 105-133. doi: 10.47176/smok.2025.1881

Identifying and explaining the mechanism of tacit knowledge sharing among University of Tehran employees in the development of successors

مدیریت راهبردی دانش سازمانی
Article 5, Volume 8, Issue 2 - Serial Number 29, July 2025, Pages 105-133    PDF (1.72 M)
Document Type: Original Research Paper
DOI: 10.47176/smok.2025.1881
Authors
Omid Aryani* 1; Hamidreza Yazdani2; Majid Ramezan2
1PhD student in Public Administration, Human Resource Management, Aras International Campus, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2Associate Professor, Department of Management, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Receive Date: 11 February 2025,  Revise Date: 10 April 2025,  Accept Date: 24 June 2025 
Abstract
Purpose: This article was done with the aim of Identifying and explaining the mechanism of tacit knowledge sharing among University of Tehran employees in the development of successors. .This research is an applied-developmental research because it seeks to identify and explain the mechanisms of sharing tacit knowledge to employees in the field of successor development at the University of Tehran. The University of Tehran has had many administrative and research experiences, but the use and utilization of these experiences has become an important concern of the university. On the one hand, the university has benefited from experienced and knowledgeable specialists over a period of time, and after a period of time, it has lost them for reasons such as retirement, being project workers, etc., and on the other hand, it has not prepared documentation and lessons learned from previous projects in a systematic manner. Therefore, in order to reduce the negative effects of the university's knowledge workers leaving and also extracting lessons learned from administrative projects, mechanizing the sharing of tacit knowledge seemed necessary. In mechanization, the effort is to document the sharing of tacit knowledge, experiences, and knowledge of individuals in understandable ways and make them available to other university managers and employees. In this case, even without the presence of knowledgeable individuals in the organization, their knowledge can be transferred. Also, realizing the mission of the University of Tehran to advance the overall goals of a leading university at the level of the Islamic Revolution requires identifying, mechanizing, and streamlining the sharing of tacit knowledge to its managers and employees.
Methodology: This research is a mixed-method, sequential, exploratory study. The research population in the qualitative section is managers, deputy heads of departments, and employees of the University of Tehran. Purposeful sampling and snowball sampling techniques were used, and interviews continued until theoretical saturation, and accordingly, 22 people participated in the interview. This research was conducted using the qualitative data-based research method or grounded theory based on the Strauss and Corbin approach through 3 types of coding, open coding, axial coding and selective coding. The grounded theory method is a method for determining, analyzing and expressing the main categories of the phenomenon under study. This method organizes qualitative data and describes it in detail. For analysis The qualitative part used MAXQDA software. The reliability of the qualitative part was determined using the Holst coefficient (poa = 0.712). In the quantitative part, the statistical population includes managers and employees of the University of Tehran. For the validation of the model in the quantitative part, the sample size was estimated to be 140 people using the Cohen power analysis rule (1992) and G*Power software. A semi-structured interview and a questionnaire extracted from the qualitative part were used to collect data. The paradigmatic model of the research was validated using PLS SMART software.
Findings: The research findings showed that the presented paradigmatic model includes causal conditions (organizational knowledge management, organizational justice, organizational policy-making, and organizational structure), a central phenomenon (sharing tacit knowledge with employees), driving factors (organizational culture and values, organizational leadership), inhibiting factors (human resource resistance to knowledge sharing (soft factors) and resistance in processes and technologies to knowledge sharing (hard factors)), strategies (human resource empowerment), and consequences (development of successors and growth and sustainability of the university). The validity of the research paradigmatic model was confirmed using SMART PLS software, and the model has a good fit. In the quantitative part, the statistical population includes managers and employees of the University of Tehran. For the validation of the model in the quantitative part, the sample size was estimated to be 140 people using the Cohen power analysis rule (1992) and G*Power software. A semi-structured interview and a questionnaire extracted from the qualitative part were used to collect data. The paradigmatic model of the research was validated using SMART PLS software.
Conclusion: Paying attention to and applying the model identified in this study can help policymakers, senior and middle managers, and decision makers to routinely conduct continuous knowledge exchange in the internal and external environment of the organization, which increases employee knowledge, optimizes the use of technology, and changes the organizational culture approach, is justice-oriented, and ultimately leads to effectiveness and efficiency.
Research limitations/implications: Undoubtedly, every research is faced with limitations and problems along the way, and this research is no exception, some of which are mentioned below. In collecting research data, in addition to using interviews as suggested in the data-driven strategy, attention was also paid to direct observations and studying documents. In this study, it was not possible to study all the organization's documents and observe the behavior of employees for a long period of time. It can be expected that observing the phenomenon of sharing tacit knowledge with employees in the context of research and over a longer period of time will provide deeper insight into this phenomenon. According to experts, the results obtained from the data-driven theory method can only be generalized to theoretical propositions, not analytical generalization and the possibility of generalization to the entire society (statistical generalization) is not available. The subjective nature of the code definitions in data coding in the qualitative data analysis section requires qualified and motivated individuals who, unfortunately, like many internal studies, were faced with a lack of real experts and the opportunity to interact and benefit from their opinions. Some individuals who, in the researcher's view, could have added to the richness of the research materials refused to cooperate in the study, and those who agreed to cooperate did not have the appropriate opportunity for in-depth discussion and analysis as the researcher intended due to their busy schedules. Like most studies based on data-driven theory, the findings of this study were obtained by relying on the views and experiences of a relatively limited number of individuals, and this inadequacy can limit the theoretical generalizability of the research findings.
Originality/value: Due to the lack of use of the grounded theory method in previous studies, the general components of none of the models of tacit knowledge sharing to employees of the University of Tehran in the field of successor development are compatible with the components of this model, but conceptually, relationships and comparisons can be made between them. Using a mixed approach of grounded theory in the first phase and quantitative methods in the second phase of the research is one of the innovations of this study.
Keywords
Knowledge sharing; Succession planning; Tacit knowledge; Grounded theory; Knowledge management
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