Caring for Clarity in Knowledge Communication

Nicole Bischof (St. Gallen, Switzerland)

Martin J. Eppler (St. Gallen, Switzerland)

Abstract: Knowledge communication is an essential mechanism to facilitate intra- and inter-organizational knowledge transfer. In order to improve the efficiency of knowledge communication, organizations need to pay particular attention to the clarity of conveyed knowledge in order not to create confusion, misunderstandings, or misapplication of knowledge. In this contribution, we show where and how the concept of clarity matters for knowledge management in general, and for knowledge communication in particular. We review and operationalize the clarity concept so that it can become the object of a systematic management effort. Furthermore, we show ways of how clarity can be pro-actively and systematically managed. We have tested our conception of clarity in a survey on clarity in knowledge-focused presentations, and we present the results in this article. An outlook on future research on clarity in knowledge management concludes the contribution.

Keywords: PowerPoint presentations, clarity, cognitive load theory, knowledge communication, knowledge transfer

Categories: M.5, M.9