People-focused knowledge management

Situational Awareness
Situational Awareness is the functional proficiency that helps a
person become aware and make sense of a situation. Any time a
ch05.qxd 5/3/04 2:34 PM Page 128

---

A K
no
wledge
M
odel for
P
er
sonal
Situ
a
tion
-H
andling
129
Table 5-1
Examples of conditions that improve or impede Sensemaking.
Examples of Conditions that Affect Sensemaking
Conditions
Positive Influences
Negative Influences
Expertise and
In less known or unfamiliar situations
Having strong expertise in narrow areas —
Generic Knowledge
having broad generic knowledge consisting
Can make the person miscategorize situations as
of scripts, schemata, and procedural and
belonging to types she is familiar with when that is
declarative metaknowledge —
not the case.
Provides capability to understand complex
or novel situations.
Specific Knowledge in
Possessing practical experience consisting of
Good theoretical but lack of practical experience —
Well-Known
routine and operational mental models that
Leads to lack of real-world understanding and inhibits
Situations
cover broad ranges of typical cases —
a person’s general ability to correctly identify
Provides ability to correctly make sense of
and make sense of situations.
large numbers of situations.
Bias and Belief
Lacking subjective bias that influences
Believing that a situation is different from what it
perspectives or misdirects attention —
actually is — or believing that some types of
Leads to ability to correctly understand
situations cannot occur —
unusual situations.
Leads to misclassifying — even ignoring important
situations.
Information
Obtaining good and timely information that
Received information that is incomplete, biased,
describes the situation accurately and as
corrupted, delayed, etc. —
completely as possible —
Prevents appropriate Sensemaking and may lead to
Leads to ability to understand situations
misunderstanding of the situation.
properly.
(Continued)

---

130
P
eople
-F
ocused
K
no
wledge
M
ana
gement
Table 5-1
(Continued)
Examples of Conditions that Affect Sensemaking
Conditions
Positive Influences
Negative Influences