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Knowledge Capture and Codifi cation 105

that are held when knowledgeable staff near retirement age. Content management
systems are well suited to publishing their lessons learned and best practices accumu-
lated over their years of experience at the organization. Structured interviewing tech-
niques place great demands on being highly skilled at communicating and
conceptualizing, as well as having a good grasp of the subject at hand. These sessions
yield specifi c data that is often declarative in nature in response to focused questions.
Structured interviews may also be used to clarify or refi ne knowledge originally elicited
during unstructured interactions. The interviewer should outline specifi c goals and
questions for the knowledge acquisition session. The interviewee should be provided
with session goals and sample lines of questioning, but usually not the specifi c ques-
tions to be asked.
Two major types of questions are used in interviewing: open and closed questions.
Open questions tend to be broad and place few constraints on the expert. Open ques-
tions are not followed by choices, as they are designed to encourage free response
( Oppenheim 1966 ). These types of questions allow interviewers to observe the expert ’ s
use of key vocabulary, concepts, and frames of reference. The expert can also offer
information that was not specifi cally asked for. Some examples would be:
• How does that work?
• What do you need to know before you decide?
• Why did you choose this one rather than that one?
• What do you know about . . .
• How could . . . be improved?
• What is your general reaction to . . .

Closed questions set limits on the type, level, and amount of information an expert
will provide. A choice of alternatives is always given. A moderately closed question
would be something like: “ which symptom led you to conclude that. . . . ” A very
strong closed question is one that can only be answered by yes or no.
The structured interviewing process is primarily a people-focused one and as
such, techniques that serve to facilitate the interactions can greatly contribute to the
successful outcome of such sessions. The four major techniques used in refl ective
listening include: paraphrasing, clarifying, summarizing, and refl ecting feelings.
Refl ective listening helps in cases where words may have multiple meanings, or where
the interview participants may hold very different mental models and personal char-
acteristics such as background, attitude, training, and level of comfort with the current
position in the organization. These factors may infl uence how an expert communi-
cates his or her knowledge.