Capturing Tacit Knowledge in Evaluation of Development Projects

The purpose of this paper is to present a model supporting capturing and using tacit expert knowledge in evaluation of development projects. The issue of evaluation of such projects is one of the poorly structured problems related to making decisions in conditions of high uncertainty. It results from the indispensability to consider the frequently irrational qualitative criteria and the subjective nature of nonverbal resources of tacit knowledge often unconsciously acquired by evaluators as a result of their many years' experience working in expert panels. Those experts have various beliefs and attitudes and understand the meaning of qualitative evaluation criteria in a different way. The decisions they make may result from mental, cultural, social, psychological and other immeasurable factors. Therefore, the evaluation process might have a subjective character and it is necessary to strive to increase its objectivity. Improving and objectifying subsequent evaluation processes may result from the capturing and sharing tacit knowledge related to previous evaluation processes. In accordance with the purpose of the paper, the following research question was formulated: is it possible to uncover and capture subjective and empirical tacit knowledge, which is a generalization of the experience of experts, in a way that enables the management of such knowledge and its use in subsequent project evaluation processes? Such activities can support the organization's learning to build its capacity to carry out evaluation processes even without the participation of evaluators whose tacit knowledge has been captured and uncovered. This paper presents not only theoretical considerations concerning the proposed Tacit Knowledge Management Cycle model (TKMCM), but also complements them with empirical experiments related to the implementation of the model based on decision tables and rules. As a result of the research, it became possible to positively empirically verify the model in capturing and uncovering subjective as well as empirical tacit knowledge in evaluation of development projects. This verification process was carried out using empirical data derived from the evaluation processes of such projects. The discussed model confirmed its usefulness in supporting the implementation of processes based on expert bound empirical and tacit knowledge, which creates conditions for building new methods for capturing, recording, managing and disseminating such knowledge.