A Knowledge Management Approach for Tacit Knowledge Explication and Crystallisation

From a knowledge management perspective, tacit knowledge is considered a form of knowledge that is extremely abstract, intangible and difficult to acquire and formalise as it is embedded and hidden within the expert’s explicit knowledge. In this paper, we propose the use of hypothetical scenarios as a mean to acquire and represent tacit knowledge. This proposition is based on the premise that tacit knowledge is best manifested in atypical situations. We describe the representational scheme and acquisition mechanism of scenarios. We also incorporate an ontology-base d input standardisation mechanism into the tacit knowledge explication exercise. The explicated tacit knowledge contributes to the ongoing efforts to create knowledge and thus leads to the crystallisation and repair of knowledge. We conclude by asserting that tacit knowledge holds great potential towards realising effective knowledge management systems through the retention of contextually relevant information.