A knowledge model for situation‐handling

Enterprise performance is determined by the effectiveness of how situations are handled throughout the organization and is determined by many factors, the most important are the quality and availability of pertinent knowledge. Important situations vary widely. Some are well‐known and are handled with routine, even automatized knowledge. Others are complex and require extensive, at times abstract, knowledge. In routine cases, effective situation‐handling involves many steps and relies on different kinds of knowledge to support the primary tasks of sensemaking, decision‐making/problem‐solving, implementation and monitoring. Similar tasks are required for simple and complex personal situation‐handling cases and organizational situation‐handling. This paper presents a situation‐handling model for people and organizations. Its purpose is to strengthen knowledge‐related, and deliberate and systematic knowledge management (KM). The paper portrays processes associated with delivering competent work. It does not deal explicitly with learning or innovation mechanisms. Nor does it detail mechanisms within the primary tasks.