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The purpose of this paper is to deal with tacit signals and organization performance development. Tacit signals are personal guiding beliefs that arise from tacit knowledge. The paper describes theoretical hypotheses how tacit signal method is utilized in competence measurement and organization performance improvement. Theories are evaluated by empirically grounded study.

The tacit signal approach is linked to human pressure‐performance theory of inverted U‐curve, known as Yerkes‐Dodson law. Moreover, a new mental model of five interrelated competences is used in order to understand the pluralistic nature of organization development. These five competences are management, leadership, culture, skills, and processes. The paper describes how competences can be studied by tacit signals, offering positive elements for both management and performance. The case study is done in Finnish commercial business enterprise of approximately 1,000 employees.

Empirically grounded case study supports the theoretical approach, showing that tacit signals are in correlation to organization performance. Tacit signals help working groups identifying their collective dissonance in a way that will help them to increase emotional intelligence and performance. In the case, company significant improvement in profitability is found.

The paper connects researcher innovation of tacit signals to organization competence measurement. This paper supports hypotheses that persons have tacit knowledge of personal situation at pressure‐performance curve. This situation can be measured for each competence by tacit signal inquiry which guides to optimal improvement which strengthens the group emotional intelligence and increases performance. The described tacit signal method and system intelligence model gives additional value to further scientific studies.

The purpose of this study is essentially to examine the contribution of reflection in providing a stronger association between explicit competences and role clarity when reflection is used as a means of articulating competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes).

The study employed a correlational survey design and targeted 223 employees in managerial positions of nine districts' local governments in Uganda and primarily used a structured questionnaire.

The research confirmed a significant positive relationship between reflection and explicit competences, showing the importance of articulating tacit knowledge to develop explicit competences that would increase role clarity.

There are seemingly other confounding factors that may enhance reflection and explicit competences such as community participation in goal setting which need to be considered in future studies.

This paper adds to the understanding of the consequences of routinely utilizing competences without concern on whether they will leads to the desired results. It introduces the concept of reflection; an approach for articulating competences explicitly to increase role clarity.

The study recommends district managers to formally engage in continuous reflection on tacit competences in order to minimise errors and increase role clarity during service delivery.

This paper aims to examine employees' conceptions of the meaning of experience in job‐competence and its development in workplace context. The aim is to bring out the variety of conceptions related to experience, competence and workplace learning.

The paper is based on interview data from six Finnish small and medium sized enterprises. The data were collected as a part of a larger European Union research project, Working Life Changes and Training of Older Workers (WORKTOW) during spring 1999. The approach chosen for the analysis presented in this paper was phenomenography.

The findings in the paper show the importance accorded to experience in competence and in workplace learning. The employees valued work experience as the main source of their competence. They also developed their competence mainly through learning at work. The role of social participation in work communities and learning through experiences was emphasized.

The paper shows that differentiating employees' conceptions paves a way to more specific perspectives on the development and utilisation of experience‐based competence in work communities and organisations.

In this paper the findings are discussed in the light of construction and development of older workers' job‐competence in working life. It is argued that experience serves several kinds of purposes in workplace learning also among experienced workers.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover processes and the corresponding social mechanisms promoting innovation in organisations.

It is the integration of organisational learning, the internal knowledge base of the company and its external knowledge base, viewed in relation to innovations in organisations, which are the main elements discussed in this paper. In the present paper, it is the systemic angle of incidence which will be used.

An increased focus on information, knowledge and organisational learning, has provided a deeper understanding of factors and processes conducive to innovation and eventually to sustainable competitive advantages. However, little attention has been given to social mechanisms triggering innovations, which are uncovered in this paper.

A conceptual model, which represents a synthesis of the social mechanisms which influence those processes affecting innovation in social systems is presented.

The idea is that when several knowledge domains (practical, theoretical, internal and external) are connected for one specific purpose, the inherent variety may release what is creatively new, igniting innovation in social systems.

The purpose of this paper is to help firms to create competitiveness by developing marketing capabilities. It analyzes how the component and architectural competences affect and enhance market orientation and firm performance.

Built on the theories of organizational capability, knowledge creation, and market orientation, this research develops the contents of marketing capabilities, including component and architectural competences that contribute to marketing capability by responding to external changes, and analyzes their influence on market orientation and firm performance.

The study reveals the following effective marketing capabilities which benefit to marketing performance. First, hiring and retaining employees with higher professional, local, and specific knowledge. Second, firms with higher tacit knowledge enhance market orientation. Third, arranging employees into teamwork to implement marketing tasks. Fourth, assigning employees into small-scale experiments on creative proposals. Fifth, standardizing procedures of generation, dissemination, and response of marketing intelligence. Sixth, providing written market information and training programs to non-marketing staff. Seventh, appropriately delegating to staff. Eighth, establishing apprenticeship among the staff to deliver experiential know-how.

From a dynamic capability perspective, this research construct the two kinds of marketing competences and examine their effect on market orientation and firm performance. For further understanding the complementary effects of marketing capabilities, market orientation, and synergistic performance, a larger sample data (e.g. product, market share, sales, characteristics of staff, firm, and knowledge, etc.) and objective evaluation are encouraged. Otherwise, from the viewpoint of agency theory, the incentive system should also be discussed.

This research has potentially significant implications for knowledge management and marketing management fields as well as managerial practice. The results suggest the importance of marketing capability for market orientation and firm performance.

Marketing resources and marketing capabilities are significant drivers of firm performance, and their impact is greater when they are complementary to each other. This study takes the perspectives of organizational capabilities and market orientation to find out the factors which contribute to marketing capability and performance. This study provides practitioners with a framework for analyzing marketing capabilities as an object of improving firm performance by creating market orientation. Furthermore, this research empirically introduced strategic specific competence (tacit knowledge and autonomy) into the model and tests their effect of market orientation and firm performance.

The present paper aims to explore what type of information is useful for managers and employees in understanding the company and the requirements for particular jobs within the company.

A longitudinal study was undertaken in a Swedish company. A number of narratives were collected with the help of asking for stories in the context of an interview, critical‐incident technique and recording of spontaneous storytelling.

The finding in present paper is that narrative accounting is a new way of looking at management accounting. Narrative accounting consists of visualisations and narratives emanating from within an organisation.

The present paper explores an area were few studies have been conducted.

The usefulness of present paper is that practitioners may understand that there is a need for complements to traditional accounting in the context competence creation.

The research shows that narrative accounting is a new way of looking at management accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how to incorporate knowledge concepts into analytical models of strategy formulation and the strategic theory of the firm.

The paper examines four different perspectives of the elusive concept of “knowledge”, namely, “knowledge as assets”, “knowledge through innovation”, “knowledge embedded in routines” and “knowledge through learning”. The study attempts to specify and interrelate the concepts of a knowledge‐based strategic theory of the firm.

The “knowledge web” is seen as a partial framework, capturing from a strategic perspective how both specific and organisational knowledge build the competences necessary for the value‐creating activities of the firm.

The paper provides frameworks for understanding how knowledge can reinforce the strategic core competences of the firm.

The paper addresses knowledge as a key element in the development of an enhanced strategic theory of the firm, incorporating the knowledge‐based viewpoint.