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Understanding

Knowledge

Chapter 2

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OverviewD efinitionsCognition

Expert KnowledgeHuman Thinking and LearningImplications for Management

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D efinitionsKnowledge: Understanding gained throughexperience or study know-howIntelligence: Capability to acquire andapply knowledge; thinking and reasoning;ability to understand and use languageMemory: Ability to store and retrieve relevant

experience at will; part of intelligence

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D efinitionsLearning

Knowledge acquired by instruction or study?Consequence of intelligent problem solving?Bottom-line is: Any increase in problem-solving ability?

ExperienceRelates to what weve done and to knowledgeExperience leads to expertise?

Any difference with learning?

Common Sense: Unreflective opinions of ordinarypeopleHeuristic

A rule of thumb based on years of experienceCan heuristics be made from intelligence?

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D ata, Information, and KnowledgeD ataUnorganized and unprocessed factsInformation

Data + context = ?Information = data-in-form?

Aggregation of data that makes decision makingeasier

KnowledgeD erived from information in the same way?information is derived from data??? It is a personsrange of information

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KNOWLEDGE

INFORMATION

W ISDOM

Nonalgorithmic(Heuristic)

Nonprogrammable

From Data Processing to Knowledge-based SystemsFrom Data Processing to Knowledge-based Systems

DATAAlgorithmic Programmable

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D ata, Information, andKnowledge

Data is a set of discrete facts about eventsInform ati on becomes knowledge with questionslike what implications does this information havefor my final decision?Knowledge is understanding of informationbased on its perceived importance

Knowledge , not information, can lead to acompetitive advantage in business

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Types of KnowledgeShallow (readily recalled) and deep(acquired through years of experience)

Explicit (codified) and tacit (embedded inthe mind)Procedural (psychomotor skills) versus

episodical (chunked by episodes;autobiographical)Chunking knowledge

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Knowledge as Know-HowKnow-how distinguishes an expert froma novice

Experts represent their know-how interms of heuristics, based onexperience

Know-how is not book knowledge; it ispractical experience

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Reasoning and HeuristicsHumans reason in a variety of ways:

Reasoning by analogy : relating one

concept to another F ormal reasoning : using deductive or inductive methods

C ase-based reasoning : reasoning fromrelevant past cases

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D eductive and inductivereasoning

D eductive reasoning: exact reasoning.It deals with exact facts and exactconclusionsI nductive reasoning : reasoning from aset of facts or individual cases to ageneral conclusion

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FROM PROCE DU RAL TO EP ISOD IC KNOWLE DG E

Sh allo roce ural o le geKnowledge

Knowledge of how to do a task that is essentially motor innature; the same knowledge is used over and over again.

_______________________________________________ D ecl a r ativ e Knowledge

Surface-type information that is available in short-termmemory and easily verbalized; useful in early stagesof knowledge capture but less so in later stages.

_______________________________________________ Sem a n ti c Knowledge

Hierarchically organized knowledge of concepts, facts,and relationships among facts.

_______________________________________________ Ep is od ic Knowledge

Knowledge that is organized by temporal spatial means,not by concepts or relations; experiential information thatis chunked by episodes. This knowledge is highly compiled

D ee p and autobiographical and is not easy to extract or capture.Knowledge

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EXPLICIT AN D TACIT

KNOWLE DG EExplicit knowledge: knowledge codified anddigitized in books, documents, reports,

memos, etc.Ta cit knowledge: knowledge embedded inthe human mind through experience and jobsTacit and explicit knowledge have been

expressed in terms of knowing-how andknowing-that, respectivelyUnderstanding what knowledge is makes iteasier to understand that knowledge hoarding

is basic to human nature.

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Knowledge As An Attribute of

Expertise An expert in a specialized area masters therequisite knowledgeThe unique performance of a knowledgeableexpert is clearly noticeable in decision-making qualityKnowledgeable experts are more selective inthe information they acquire

Experts are beneficiaries of the knowledgethat comes from experienceSee Figure 2.5 next: academic knowledgecontributes to conceptual knowledgeaprerequisite for practical knowledge

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Human LearningLearning occurs in one of three ways:

Learning by experience: a function of timeand talentLearning by example: more efficient thanlearning by experienceLearning by discovery: undirected approachin which humans explore a problem area withno advance knowledge of what their objectiveis.