SELaKT - Social Network Analysis as a Method for Expert Localisation and Sustainable Knowledge Transfer

Tobias Mueller-Prothmann (Free University Berlin, Germany)

Ina Finke (Fraunhofer IPK, Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology, Germany)

Abstract: In many organisations, conservation of specialised expertise is picked out as a central theme only after experienced members have already left. The paper presents the SELaKT method, a method for Sustainable Expert Localisation and Knowledge T ransfer based on social network analysis (SNA). It has been developed during a project co-operation between the Department of Information Science at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Free University Berlin, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK, Berlin. The SELaKT method uses recent insights into network analysis and pragmatically adapts SNA to suit organisational practice. Thus it provides a strategic tool to localise experts, to identify knowledge communities and to analyse the structure of knowledge flows within and between organisations. The SELaKT method shows its advances and increasing relevance for practical use by integration of specific organisational conditions and requirements into the process of analysis.

Keywords: applied research, collaboration, communities of practice, distributed knowledge management, expert localisation, implementation, knowledge networks, knowledge sharing, social network analysis, strategies, sustainability

Categories: A.0, A.1, H.3.0, J.4