Tacit knowledge awareness and sharing as a focal part of knowledge production in Polish and US information technology, health care, and construction industries

In the knowledge economy era, knowledge production and dissemination are of key interest to individuals, organizations, and economies. Tacit knowledge results from experience, leading to innovation.The learning culture can facilitate the transformation of errors into experiences. This study explores whether mistake acceptance facilitates tacit knowledge awareness and sharing in the information technology, healthcare, and construction industries in Poland and the United States. The findings show the influenceof mistake acceptance on knowledge production and the differences between countries and industries. The US showed a higher level of mistake acceptance, which was similar across the three industries, than did Poland, which showed differences between sectors. In general, the higher the acceptance of mistakes, the greater the effect of tacit knowledge awareness on sharing.This study shows that there is no knowledge production without learning and no learning without mistake acceptance.