Research Analysis

Once the data from the qualitative interviews has been collated, the research will use

aspectual analysis as opposed to M.A.K.E (Multi-Aspectual Knowledge Elicitation) method to identify the different types of tacit knowledge at the organisation.

4.8.1 Multi-Aspectual Knowledge Elicitation

Mike Winfield, University of Central England, devised a method that helps widen the focus during knowledge acquisition: MAKE, Multi-Aspectual Knowledge Elicitation (Winfield, 2000). “MAKE is a method for analysing someone's knowledge to obtain a rich picture in which all relevant aspects are made explicit. That is to explicate all that is meaningful to the person. MAKE is particularly useful for explicating tacit knowledge or rather knowledge that is taken for granted” (Basden, 2001). It contains ideas from Clouser (1991), Stafleu (1987) and Thagard (1992) about what theories are, and makes use of Dooyeweerd’s (1955) suite of aspects.

Basden (2001) says that MAKE recognises two things about experts:

i.) The true expert will be functioning in all of Dooyeweerd’s aspects as they go about their expert activity, but much of this will be tacit knowledge.

ii.) There will usually be a couple of aspects of which the expert is aware, that constitute the core aspects of their expertise. Thus the method starts by focusing on those core aspects, and then widens the focus from that starting point by using Dooyeweerd’s aspectual suite. MAKE contains the following steps:

0. Briefly explain to the interviewee what each of Dooyeweerd’s fifteen aspects refer to. It is helpful to make available a list of the aspects for reference during the interview.

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2. Working with the interviewee, apply the aspectual template to the statement of requirements and identify the important aspects.

3. Isolate one of the aspects identified in (2) and specify any laws, axioms, data, definitions and constraints that apply within it to the domain.

4. Identify as many concepts as possible that lie in this aspect. (Note: May need to check later whether the concepts fall in the correct aspect

5. Apply Low Level Abstraction (Clouser, 1991) to expand on each concept that needs (or is thought to need) exploding. This should identify new concepts and the lniks between them.

6. Repeat steps 3-6 as necessary. (This means working with other important aspects and also some circularity in steps 3-5.)

7. Use the aspectual template to identify any new aspects that might apply to the concepts already specified, building bridges between concepts and aspects. (Winfield, 2000) as cited by Basden (2001).

This process can be applied to the interview data collated in this research, although the process would need to account in detail the properites of the aspects being researched such as inter-aspect reaching out and the dependency. Having reviewed Winfield’s (2000)

interpretation of the meaning contained in Dooyeweerd’s aspects, as with Basden, the

researcher’s interpretation differs of aspects such as the ethical aspect, the data gathered from MAKE might be slightly different. However, the researcher concludes that MAKE is an excellent alternative to performing aspectual analysis to the steps used in this research. Other forms of analysis that utilise Dooyeweerd’s aspects include M.A.I.T (multi-aspectual interview technique) by Kane (2006) which takes the MAKE technique into new areas. M.A.I.T also uses Dooyeweerd’s aspects, but whereas MAKE investigates the knowledge

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that people have already developed, M.A.I.T investigates people’s aspirations, hopes and opinions. Basden (2012) summarises, “Whereas MAKE applies aspects to the past, MAIT applies aspects to the future.”

4.8.2 Aspectual Analysis

Basden (2008) states that “aspectual analysis involves noting the ways in which each aspect expresses itself in the situation being analysed, often seeking balance.” All situations and human functioning are multi-aspectual in nature, which in turn accounts for the complexity of everyday life.

By using the suite of aspects as narrowed down in Chapter 3.1.2 to accommodate the

functioning of tacit knowing, the research is able to examine the interview data to determine where each statement made by an interviewee lies within the spectrum of tacit knowing.

Some aspects will become more prominent for some interviewees than others and this

indicates what aspect is most important to that person. Additionally, if the process is repeated for a larger group, then the research expects to see a pattern emerge whereby we can

determine the most important aspect for the management subset of interviewees relative to the rest of the interviewees. For each question asked by the researcher, an aspectual analysis will be performed of the answer to identify if any tacit knowing markers can be observed.

4.8.3 Presentation of Analysis

Each interview will be examined separately at first. The transcript of each interview will be dissected into sections relative to the questions asked during the interview process. This will make it easier to follow the aspectual analysis of each statement. After the question and answer are displayed, the research will attempt to explore the nature of the answer with respect to the different forms of tacit knowing as derived in section 3.1.2. The interview statements will thus be dissected in terms of their tacit knowing functionality.

158 4.8.4 Sampling in analysis

As mentioned in section 4.4.2, this research utilises the notion of purposive and quota sampling, whereby the study has already determined the number of people to be interviewed in the research holding different positions within the organisation. Management staff have to be separated from the employees and a certain number achieved for both subsets so as to achieve a satisfactory criteria for analysis. It is expected that the two groups would have significantly different views on similar questions thus illuminating different forms of tacit knowledge.