People-focused knowledge management

part of “general operating practices,” they may be part of the context
or a more detailed script instead of serving as an explicit part of the
schema itself.
General Principles
General Principles are mental models of underlying principles
within a target domain. Whereas schemata provide models for
general approaches for how to deal with situations or challenges,
general principles provide the conceptual and factual bases, charac-
teristics, behaviors, processes, mechanisms, and expectations within
target domains. Examples of general principles for hiring may include
components such as:
Legal principles associated with retaining employees.
Principles governing competitive compensation and enterprise
guidelines.
Considerations for hiring expertise to cover knowledge gaps and
provide people-capabilities to support enterprise strategy.
Metaknowledge and Metacognition
Metacognition in people is developed gradually starting at about
three years of age (Kuhn 2000). The resulting metaknowledge and
the ability to reason with it (metacognition) is a cornerstone for intel-
ligent functioning — for all knowledge work. Metaknowledge covers
many areas (most likely all facets of human reasoning) and has many
functions, all of them highly abstract. For the reasoning example, we
provide indications of associated metaknowledge below.
On the lowest abstraction level, metaknowledge can be divided
into the following (Kuhn 2000):
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Procedural metaknowledge is about know-how and strategies
for how to proceed toward the task goal.
— Example: High-level and tacit generic strategies for how to
explore, investigate, and judge people, particularly as appli-
cants and potential employees or coworkers. Many factors
are involved and must be blended, typically “on the fly,”
and they range from considering competence to ethics, per-
sonalities, and practical considerations.