Title: Knowledge transfer – acquiring implicit knowledge

Authors: Christiane Fricke, Brigitte Faust

Addresses: Division principale de la Securite des Installations Nucleaires, Section Information, Recherche de la Securite et Affiaires Internationales, Switzerland. ' Division principale de la Securite des Installations Nucleaires, Section Information, Recherche de la Securite et Affiaires Internationales, Switzerland

Abstract: Many organisations have recognised the problem of experts taking home a huge amount of specific knowledge, which they have gathered in their department, when they leave. The successor is capable only of acquiring explicit expertise because implicit experiences are not documented and therefore no more available. That is why we have started this pilot study in order to try to conserve the above mentioned tacit and implicit knowledge and to make it available to other colleagues. Using a semi-standardised interview we elicit tacit knowledge from the expert and summarise it in a report. This interview-guideline forms the basis of in-depth investigation for implicit knowledge.

Keywords: knowledge transfer; implicit knowledge; tacit knowledge; semi-standardised interview; interviewer; interviewee; interview guidelines; interview techniques; story-telling; evaluation scheme; method; knowledge sharing; nuclear knowledge; knowledge management; nuclear safety; knowledge preservation; knowledge retention.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNKM.2006.009618

International Journal of Nuclear Knowledge Management, 2006 Vol.2 No.1, pp.46 - 56

Published online: 02 May 2006 *

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