Excellent comments, John G. and John A., especially in what you say
about explicit versus tacit knowledge.
To some extent, internal oral history interviews or exit interviews can
fill in some gaps in institutional knowledge. But, let's face it, that
largely depends on the individual. Some people are introspective by
nature and willing to be candid. The best ones can provide useful
insights into processes and issues at an institutution. And to help
future managers learn some lessons that will help them. Of course, not
everyone is suited to helping with knowledge transfer. Put a recorder
in front of some people and you may find that they simply recount the
high points of their careers and leave it at that.
Benis Frank (History and Museums Division Headquarters, United States
Marine Corps ) compiled some oral history interviewing tips during the
1980s, which have been re-posted at
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/oralusmc.htm . My favorite is the
admonition to the interviewer not to fall asleep in the middle of the
interview, LOL. The Marine Corps history division later updated this
primer (in 2005?) in a more matter of fact version. Baylor University
has some good oral history information on its website as do a number of
other institutions. (Just Google oral history and primer.)
Of course, records can be more reliable than lore. Stephen Haycox
wrote an interesting article on memory and documentation for the
Anchorage Daily News in December 2002. See "Rely on Documents, Not
Memory" at
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/2275181p-2337946c.html . Haycox noted
that:
"in each construction of memory, people reshape, omit, distort, combine
and reorganize details from the past to fit their changing notion of
the world, of who they are and who their audience is. For this reason,
neither historians nor attorneys put much faith in unaided human
memory. For reliability, memory has to be corroborated by documentary
evidence. The documents may not always be 'true,' but unlike memory,
they stay the same unless they've been altered, which is why in court
extraordinary measures are taken to verify the authenticity,
originality and unaltered character of the documents.
A common method of searching for truth in legal proceedings is to
introduce the documents, then question the witness. Historians use a
similar method, checking the assertions of memoirists against the rest
of the documentary record, including other writers' assertions,
official letters, memos and orders and the like."
That makes sense. It helps to bring along a few documents to an oral
history interview, so you can hand them to the interview subject and
ask, "what do you remember about this?"
As to Bill's comments, all of us who work with records know that
history didn't just start in the electronic age. Some useful bits of
knowledge show up in old, paper based records that, to this day,
undergird some policy analysis and legal research. Lovely as it would
be to digitize it all, I just don't think every institution will have
the resources to digitize every old record and publication that ever
was created in the paper-based era. This is especially true for
Federal government agencies. As the sobering $20 million dollar
shortfall in NARA's budget indicates, budgets for civil agencies look
to be tight for some time to come.
I've drawn on some records from the 1920s and 1930s in some of the
research I did at GAO. See
http://www.indiantrust.com/_pdfs/2002.04.23_GAO_Letter.pdf
for an example.
We may be in the digital age now, but, as you can see from the link
above, I still handle paper based records. They don't just recount
musty dusty stuff that no one cares about anymore. I doubt those 75
and 85 year old records referenced in the 2002 GAO letter will all be
digitized any time soon. And if they aren't, then I guess those grade
school kids aren't going to find 'em, LOL. And anyway, somebody has to
teach those kids that knowledge matters. That's the biggest challenge!
(And just wait until they get to college. Has anyone read Thomas
Reeves' observations on his experiences as a former history professor?
When I saw him quote from a student who dropped out of one of his
history classes with the statement "I hate old stuff," it made me glad
I went into government service, not teaching!)
Still, I'm glad to see that John A. and John G. are so interested in
knowledge management. And that Steve and Bill are confident that
retention schedules will do the trick as far as saving electronic
records for "whoever is on the other end of the phone" 20 years from
now. I'm 55 with 33 years service, and eligible already for federal
retirement, so it probably won't be me, LOL. As you all probably have
guessed, I get great satisfaction from being able to provide my
colleagues with the knowledge they need to do their work.
Maarja
Maarja
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