The Role of Tacit Knowledge in Management

This chapter is based on three interviews with Dr. George Hatsopoulos, chairman and founder of Thermo Electron Corporation. Throughout this chapter, the pronoun I refers to George Hatsopoulos, and the pronoun we refers to Thermo Electron Corporation. Because neither author is well versed in the literature concerning tacit and implicit knowledge, the terms used in this chapter-such as intuition and gut feeling-are colloquial versions that may only partially match the scientifically defined terms used in cognitive science. The thesis described and defended here is that successful managers and executives use a dual-process methodology when faced with a business decision to be made or problem to be solved. The key to successful managerial and entrepreneurial decision making is to come up with solutions in which both the “logical” and the “intuitive” processes agree.