The Dashboard: a knowledge conversion tool

Abstract

This paper focuses on tacit and explicit knowledge conversion as conceptualized by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). They consider knowledge conversion process as a four-step spiral that consists of socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. These concepts are used to present the Dashboard, a decision support tool, that supports the conversion of multi-domain expert knowledge in such a way that nondomain experts (e.g. top managers) can understand, internalize, combine explicit expert knowledge to inform their decisions. The Dashboard approach to knowledge conversion supports (1) the representation of domain expert knowledge targeted for nondomain experts; (2) the integration of domain expert explicit knowledge with (formalized) tacit knowledge of nondomain expert; (3) complex problem modeling and solving by nondomain experts; and (4) the reuse of the newly generated tacit knowledge.