Knowledge Transfer Through Semi-Structured Interview
- Naama Berkovitz
- Jul 1, 2008
- 7 min read
In an era where companies face a sophisticated and dynamic business environment requiring more effective knowledge transfer processes than ever, the need to preserve internal organizational knowledge continues to grow. In this context, we should distinguish between Knowledge Management, which aims to help organizations achieve their business goals through various techniques, and Knowledge Transfer, which focuses on actively sharing ideas, knowledge, or experience between individuals or between different organizational units.
Knowledge transfer can therefore be defined as a knowledge management tool focusing on transferring explicit or tacit knowledge from one person or organization to another person or group. Dar & Kurtzberg (2000) went even further and defined the knowledge transfer process as one where the individual uses knowledge received from the information source - meaning knowledge transfer includes an additional dimension beyond sharing: the dimension of usage. Knowledge transfer contributes to the organization's existence by accelerating the familiarization process with new tasks or work required from an employee and making knowledge convertible and adaptable for the population that needs it.
One increasingly common situation in organizational life is when an employee leaves their position, whether for internal mobility or work at another company. At the same time, their replacement hasn't arrived yet or accumulated enough knowledge to perform the role effectively. Such cases don't allow for direct knowledge transfer or structured mentoring. In this review, we'll try to present a technique that helps accumulate and document both explicit and tacit knowledge from transitioning or departing employees. The technique: semi-structured interview. It's important to note that the interview isn't the only information source to rely on, but it can certainly serve to focus and enhance already accumulated knowledge.
Research on this topic found that the main reason for employees' lack of knowledge sharing is lack of time (65%) and unwillingness to transfer knowledge (62%). Additionally, a significant portion of respondents (31%) indicated they don't recognize the need for knowledge transfer. (KPMG, 2001)
The semi-structured interview technique is meant to overcome these issues. It allocates a fixed time defined and agreed upon by the organization, allowing employees to share their knowledge. This increases motivation by showing the employee that their work is valued and worthy of inquiry. Interview techniques largely enable more information from the employee than they initially intended to give, with knowledge not limited to formal knowledge. All these enable optimization of the replacement process.
There are different types of interviews: A structured and standardized interview using a fixed set of questions cannot flexibly adapt to cover all aspects of the employee's experience. In contrast, an unstructured interview has no predetermined questions - the structure and content of questions develop during conversation with the interviewee, concerning the information they provide. A semi-structured interview uses the best of both worlds, including primary and secondary questions. Primary questions are asked in a predetermined order, while secondary questions are asked during the conversation or used freely. The questionnaire aims to create a relatively open conversation within a rigid interview framework that provides orientation for both parties.
The set of primary and secondary questions in a semi-structured interview is called the "Interview Guide." When formulating the questions, six central elements need to be considered:
Asking short questions allows the interviewer to navigate more effectively and increases the likelihood of receiving a short, focused answer.
Avoiding repetitive questions - prevents time waste during the interview and enables greater transparency with the interviewee, who doesn't need to wonder why the same question appears in different variations.
Asking open-ended questions increases the interviewee's willingness to provide answers, doesn't limit them, and allows them to create new perspectives; however, it should be considered that this requires thinking time from the interviewee.
Asking concrete questions - enables receiving a more "tight" and practical answer, promotes mutual understanding of the question's essence, and increases the likelihood of documenting practical and applicable knowledge.
Avoiding related or consecutive questions - allows answering all questions rather than just the last one asked, helps ensure nothing is forgotten, enables the interviewer to be more confident and the interviewee to be less confused.
Avoiding leading questions allows the interviewee to say what they think rather than what others expect, generating less resistance.
The sequence of questions is also highly important in this type of interview. It's recommended to start with general questions that enable the interviewee to open up. Initially, questions should include relatively "neutral" elements such as activity goals, timeframes, etc.. In contrast, emotional or judgmental questions should be asked after an initial willingness to answer has been established.
When conducting a semi-structured interview focused on knowledge transfer, three central axes should be considered:
Structure versus Dynamics
The interview structure is highly significant. It provides a guiding framework for the interviewee and interviewer and enables an optimal sequence of questions. An interview without structure can create an impression of asymmetry and cause both interviewer and interviewee to feel they haven't achieved their goal. However, structure must be complemented by dynamics that allow flexible behavior even within the existing framework.
Facts versus Personal Characteristics
Facts constitute compiled information about different aspects of the work. They form the interview's foundation and are complemented by the interviewee's personal characteristics, subjective opinions, thoughts about the facts, how they relate to them, and the lessons they've drawn from them. Personal attributions allow us to understand the facts in their full context.
Asymmetry versus Reciprocity
Asymmetry versus reciprocity essentially represents the relationship between the interviewee and interviewer. Asymmetry refers to the interviewer's power to decide which questions to ask, how much time to dedicate to a specific topic, and which parts of the information to use. Reciprocity refers to the interaction between the interviewer and interviewee and the interview's impact on the interviewee. The interview results are ultimately a product of collaborative work, and if the interviewee doesn't want to contribute their part to the conversation, the interview is predetermined to fail. Therefore, the interviewer must guide the conversation while considering the interviewee's power.
Interview Guide for Knowledge Transfer
The interview guide is structured according to the theoretical background mentioned above. It includes five main parts:
First Part: This part includes general questions about the work. These questions are typically neutral and include:
Content description
Description of central activities
Description of recurring activities
Daily/weekly/monthly tasks to be performed
Timelines for performing central activities (dates, time of year, etc.)
Second Part: This part includes questions about specific topics within the work framework, typically dealing with cross-cutting issues. Such questions may include information about:
Key contacts
Organizational hierarchy
Formal and informal attitudes toward the work
Communication styles
Behavior toward supervisors, subordinates, and colleagues
Third Part: In this part, the interviewee must note significant projects they participated in, followed by a systematic analysis of each project using information drawn mainly from the secondary question set. The information collected in this part consists of facts and tacit knowledge, with Storytelling being the main technique used. Key questions in this part focus on:
Project timing and duration
Team member description
Description of responsibilities
Project outcomes achieved
Case descriptions of successes/failures
Description of main dilemmas encountered
Fourth Part: This part includes concluding remarks about their work. Through four questions, the interviewer tries to identify: the most demanding tasks during the past year, what significant lessons were learned and need to be implemented in the future, what main purpose the work assignment fulfilled, and which aspects of tacit knowledge the interviewee considers particularly important for success in the role.
Fifth Part: The interviewee is asked to consider and document additional topics they believe should be included in the knowledge transfer framework. They are also asked to prepare a list of suggestions from other sources that they believe will improve the quality of work for the person entering the role.
After the semi-structured interview or set of interviews, the permanent or temporary knowledge recipient (the interviewer if the replacement employee hasn't yet been recruited) should have a complete picture including good documentation of the project where all facts revealed during the project become available to them, a contact list enabling identification of all required tasks or project partners, and when possible, familiarity with members of the social/professional network.
Interview Stages
The interview can be divided into three parts: the familiarization stage, the information collection stage, and the exit stage.
The familiarization stage begins with the interviewer's introduction and explaining the interview's background and purpose. The interviewee will receive information about the interview process, and any questions they raise will be clarified at this stage. Due to the complexity of the information collection stage, it's recommended to allow a week's break between the first meeting and the following one. During this time, the interviewer can think about complementary questions that will contribute to better understanding and formulate additional questions to help uncover tacit knowledge. These questions are mainly "why?" or "how?" types. This break also helps the interviewee, who can gather additional information, refresh their memory about completed projects, etc. The exit stage is also significant; the interview should end positively, benefiting both parties.
Emphasis Points
Two significant points we need to consider relate to interview length and topic prioritization. The length of a single interview and the cumulative time should not be too long, otherwise, it will tire all parties involved. As part of the expectation alignment stage, it's recommended that a limited time frame be defined as acceptable to all concerned parties. Additionally, we can never preserve all the knowledge in an employee's head, knowledge accumulated over many years, so we must examine what's particularly important to discuss. This review provided initial tools for focusing and prioritizing topics; the following review in the series will examine the "how" and "what" in depth.
As we noted at the beginning of the review, the semi-structured interview is just one technique; it certainly doesn't replace a structured mentoring program or the employee's daily documentation of information.
This review is based on Frick & Faust's (2006) article, "Knowledge transfer – acquiring implicit knowledge" published in "International journal of nuclear knowledge management, vol 2, 46-56"
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