Modelling tacit knowledge via questionnaire data

The transfer of tacit knowledge is important in ensuring that an organisations most valuable assets do not walk out the door. While much controversy surrounds the definition of tacit knowledge and whether it can be captured, in this paper we follow a psychological approach based on the work of Sternberg at Yale that seeks to measure tacit knowledge via the capture of responses to work-place scenarios. Focusing on the information technology (IT) work-place, we have developed a tacit knowledge inventory which forms part of a questionnaire given to experts and non-experts in three separate IT organisations. In psychology, descriptive statistics are typically used to analyse the responses. We have chosen a more qualitative and visual approach and have used formal concept analysis (FCA) for data analysis that better suits our small sample size. Using FCA we were able to identify participants that responded similarly to the peer-identified experts. In this way the organisation is alerted to the important role these individuals potentially play.