CAPTURING TACIT

KNOWLEDGE

Lecture Four
(Chapter 4, Notes;
Chapter 5, Textbook)
Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Last Week’s Review

 Knowledge Creation and Sharing
 Knowledge Infrastructure
 Knowledge Management
Architecture
 Build versus Buy Decision

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

This Week’s Topics

 The Knowledge Capture Process
 How To Identify Experts
 Single vs. Multiple Experts (Pros and
Cons)
 Interview As Knowledge Capture Tool
 Sources of Errors and Problems in
Interview
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 Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Stages of KMSLC
Evaluate Existing
Infrastructure

Form the KM Team

Knowledge Capture

Iterative Rapid Design KM Blueprint

Prototyping
Verify and validate the KM
System

Implement the KM System

Manage Change and

Rewards Structure

Post-system evaluation
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

What Is Knowledge Capture ?

 A process by which the
expert’s thoughts and
experiences are captured

 A knowledge developer
collaborates with an expert
to convert expertise into a
coded program

 In simple terms, we want

to “know” how experts
know what they know
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Three important steps

 Use an appropriate tool or
technique to elicit
information from the expert

 Interpret the information

and infer the expert’s
knowledge and reasoning
process

 Use the interpretation to

build rules that represent
expert’s solutions
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Improving the Knowledge

Capture Process
 Focus on how experts
approach a problem
 Look beyond the facts
or the heuristics
 Re-evaluate how well
the problem domain is
understood
 How accurate the
problem is modeled
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Using a Single Expert

Advantages:
 Ideal when building a
simple KM system
 A problem in a restricted
domain
 Easier to coordinate
meetings
 Conflicts are easier to
resolve
 Shares more confidentiality
than does multiple experts

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Using a Single Expert (cont’d)

Disadvantages:
 Sometimes expert’s knowledge is not
easy to capture
 Single expert provides only a single
line of reasoning
 Expert knowledge is sometimes
dispersed
 Single expert more likely to change
scheduled meetings than experts in a
team

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Using Multiple Experts

Advantages:
 Complex problem domains benefit
from expertise of more than one
expert
 Working with multiple experts
stimulates interaction
 Allow alternative ways of
representing knowledge
 Formal meetings often a better
environment for generating
thoughtful contributions

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Using Multiple Experts (cont’d)

Disadvantages:
 Scheduling difficulties
 Disagreements often occur among
experts
 Confidentiality issues
 Requires more than one knowledge
developer
 Overlapping mental processes can
lead to “process loss”

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Developing a Relationship
With Experts
 Create the right
impression
 Understanding the
expert’s style
 Prepare well for the
session
 Decide where to hold
the session

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Approaching Multiple Experts

Individual
 An extension of single
expert approach
Primary and secondary
 Start with the senior
expert first, on down to
others in the hierarchy
Small groups
 Each expert tested
against expertise of
others in the group

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Analogies and Uncertainties in

Information
 Experts use analogies to
explain events

 Expert’s knowledge is the

ability to take uncertain
information and use a
plausible line of reasoning to
clarify the fuzzy details

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Analogies and Uncertainties in

Information (cont’d)
 Reliable knowledge capture
requires understanding and
interpreting expert’s verbal
description of information,
heuristics, etc.
 For example, words like
possible, likely, and definite
show relationships between
words and belief
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

The Interview As a Tool

 Commonly used in
the early stages of
tacit knowledge
capture

 The voluntary nature

of the interview is
important

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The Interview As a Tool
Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

(cont’d)
 Interviewing as a tool
requires training and
preparation

 Convenient tool for

evaluating the validity
of information
acquired

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Types of Interviews
 Structured: Questions and responses are
definitive. Used when specific information is
sought
 Semi-structured: Predefined questions are
asked but allow expert some freedom in
expressing the answers
 Unstructured: Neither the questions nor their
responses specified in advance. Used when
exploring an issue

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Variations of Structured
Questions
 Multiple-choice questions offer specific
choices, faster tabulation, and less bias by the
way answers are ordered
 Dichotomous (yes/no) questions are a special
type of multiple-choice question
 Ranking scale questions ask expert to arrange
items in a list in order of their important or
preference
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Guide to a Successful
Interview
 Set the stage and establish
rapport
 Properly phrase the
questions
 Question construction is
important
 Listen closely and avoid
arguments
 Evaluate session outcomes
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Things to Avoid
 Taping a session without
advance permission from
the expert
 Converting the interview
into an interrogation
 Interrupting the expert
 Asking questions that put
the domain expert on the
defensive
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Things to Avoid (Cont’d)

 Losing control of the session
 Pretending to understand an
explanation when you actually
don’t
 Promising something that
cannot be delivered
 Bring items not on the agenda

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Sources of Error that Reduce

Information Reliability
 Expert’s perceptual slant
 Expert’s failure to
remember just what
happened
 Expert’s fear of the
unknown
 Communication problems

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Errors Made by the

Knowledge Developer
 Ageeffect
 Race effect
 Gender effect

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Problems Encountered During

the Interview
 Response bias
 Inconsistency
 Communication
difficulties
 Hostile attitude
 Standardized questions
 Lengthy questions
 Long interview 4-25
Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Next Week’s Preview

 On-site Observation (Action Protocol)
 Brainstorming (Conventional & Electronic)
 Consensus Decision Making
 Nominal Group Technique
 Delphi Method
 Repertory Grid
 Concept Mapping
 Blackboarding
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Nonaka’s Model of Knowledge

Creation and Transformation
TACIT TO TACIT TACIT TO EXPLICIT
(SOCIALIZATION) (EXTERNALIZATION)
   
e.g., Individual and/or Team e.g., Documenting a Team
Discussions  Meeting

EXPLICIT TO TACIT EXPLICIT TO EXPLICIT

(INTERNALIZATION) (COMBINATION)
   
e.g., Learn from a report e.g., Create a Website from
and Deduce new ideas some form of explicit
  knowledge; Email a Report
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

KNOWLEDGE
INFRASTRUCTURE
 Content core: Identify
Content
knowledge centres People

 People core: Evaluate Technolog

y
employee profiles
 Technical core: The totality of
technology (S/W and H/W)
required to operate the
knowledge environment
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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge
.....

Layer User1 User2 … Usern

1 User Interface
(Web browser software installed on each user’s PC)

Authorized access control

2 (e.g., security, passwords, firewalls, authentication)

Collaborative intelligence and filtering

3 (intelligent agents, network mining, customization, personalization)

Knowledge-enabling applications
4 (customized applications, skills directories, videoconferencing, decision support systems,
group decision support systems tools)

Transport
5 (e-mail, Internet/Web site, TCP/IP protocol to manage traffic flow)

Middleware
6 (specialized software for network management, security, etc.)

The Physical Layer

(repositories, cables)
7

Databases Legacy applications Groupware Data warehousing

(e.g., payroll) (document exchange, (data cleansing,
collaboration) data mining)
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 Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Build vs. Buying

Option Cost Time Factor Customization
In-house Usually high Much shorter than High, depending
development development by on quality of
user staff

Development Usually low Depends on skills High to the user

by end users set, system priority, specifications
and so forth

Outsourcing Medium to high Shorter than High

in-house

Off-the-shelf Low to medium Nil Usually up to

Solution 80% usable

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Styles of expert’s expressions

 Procedure type
 methodical approach to the solution
 Storyteller
 focuses on the content of the domain at the expense of
the solution
 Godfather
 compulsion to take over the session
 Salesperson
 spends most of the time explaining his or her solution is
the best

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Preparing for the session

 Should become familiar with the
project terminology

 review existing materials

 Learn the expert’s language

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

Deciding where to hold the

sessions
 Beneficial in recording the expert’s
knowledge in the environment where
he or she works

 An important guideline is to make

sure the meeting place is quiet and
free from interruptions

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Chapter 4: Capturing Tacit Knowledge

The Wheels Analogy for the

Refraction of Light

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