Knowledge is plural say Fleck & Tierney[13], who list seven types of knowledge ranging from instrumentalities embodied in tools or tacit knowledge rooted in practice and experience to formal knowledge available in textbooks. Each form of knowledge has its own method of development and transmission. Each has its socially accepted value, varying enormously from one form to another, with a premium going to formal knowledge transmitted by books and taught in the initial institutional educational set-up.
The cases studied were classified in terms of the seven knowledge categories and the classification submitted to the people concerned for their comments. The following section summarises the results.
Meta-knowledge involves general cultural and philosophical assumptions. Amongst our case studies, those attempting to establish life-long learning as a part of corporate culture are working on this level (Hewlett Packard, Oracle, Silicon Graphics)
Milieu is knowledge about the local environment, relation to peer groups, management and other staff and the general organisation of work. In combining work with a CD-ROM and discussion with a superior, MIGROS introduce elements of knowledge about the "milieu".
Contingent knowledge is distributed and apparently trivial information specific to a particular environment, similar to on-the-spot learning. The UBS process based-learning client-centred learning might well involve contingent knowledge. Silicon Graphics consider that such contingent knowledge is provided by their Web tutorial system.
Tacit knowledge is rooted in practice and experience. It is traditionally transmitted by apprenticeship and training. Such knowledge is to be found in a number of the training programmes we studied, especially those that permit peer exchange about ways of working (MIGROS, KITE/JITOL, Global Teach) or by simulating working processes (Nestl).
Informal knowledge is made up of such things as rules of thumb or tricks of the trade. Generally verbal in nature it can also be transmitted in written form as guidebooks or manuals. Those companies providing practical information about the use of new technologies or practical working processes are developing informal knowledge (Digital, Global Teach, Hewlett Packard, KITE/JITOL, Nestl, MIGROS, Silicon Graphics).
Traditionally considered as the form of knowledge, formal knowledge involves theories and formulae usually available in written form as textbooks and handbooks. Fleck & Tierney make no distinction between long-standing stable knowledge like that of the structure of the Swiss government (Federal Personnel Office) and short lived facts and figures such as details of new products (Digital, Hewlett Packard, Oracle, Silicon Graphics). All the cases we studied have a part aimed at developing formal knowledge, ranging from almost exclusively formal approach via a CD-ROM of facts and figures (Federal Personnel Office) to only marginally as a by-product of business process simulation (Nestl).
Instrumentalities concern knowledge embedded in tools and instruments. As such they require other knowledge - informal, tacit and contingent - to be mobilised. Instrumentalities are tied up in all those training programmes aimed at developing the use of new technology (Digital, Hewlett Packard, Oracle, Silicon Graphics). Instrumentalities are also implicitly present in those programmes which require learners to use learning technologies even when that use is not the principal aim of learning (Federal Personnel Office, Global Teach, KITE/JITOL, UBS).
[13] The Management of Expertise: Knowledge, Power and the Economics of Expert Labour, Fleck J. & Tierney M., PICT, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 1991.