Summing It Up
EMM having EMont as its core has been discussed in quite some detail. The key characteristics are recapitulated here to give a concise picture.
Expertise Management Methodology (EMM):
- EMM is a methodology rooted in critical realism that acknowledges a real world on the one hand and self-constructed worldviews on the other hand;
- A Body of Knowledge and Skills (BOKS) can be constructed systematically through a process of abduction. This is an iterative process of induction and deduction to theorize from case studies;
- EMM supports a process of mutual understanding to recognize and acknowledge stakeholder’s worldviews by means of guided conversations and interpretations.
Expertise Management ontology (EMont):
- The PQR formula is placed in context and applied recursively:
- P-R: the what and the why, i.e., the reason of being, or what we are;
- Q: the how, a particular way of doing things, i.e., what we do;
- The PQR formula reads as a sentence, for instance: being there (P) by supporting our relatives, friends and neighbors (Q) in order to have an acceptable quality of life (R);
- The ontological category Context unifies situation and roles in a situation. They are the same when viewed from a different perspective. A hierarchy of contexts can be created in which situations and roles can be part of many situations and roles to match real life situations;
- Conditions represent the system’s state. They reflect how well roles in situations are facilitated. Activities in different roles are decoupled by conditions to model Luhmannian kind of communications. Conditions irritate a PQR cluster, but it is up to the cluster itself to select a particular Q;
- A belief is a condition that cannot be changed within the system, for example, legislation or fixed ideas.
In conclusion, EMM/EMont and the accompanying theoretical concepts make a powerful tool for assessing the possibilities of change. The role of EMont in EMM is to guide conversations and interpretations to investigate room of change in problematic situations, and to translate the outcomes into EMont models. By means of the EMM process of abduction, a BOKS of a particular domain can be developed systematically.
EMM is rooted in systems thinking (hard, soft and critical) and first-order and second-order cybernetics. For instance, the influence of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) can be recognized in the key role of the PQR formula. The second-order cybernetic principles of self-referential, self-production, autonomy and closure can be applied in EMont to model operationally closed and structurally open systems in terms of PQR clusters in context (see Social Innovation Applications).
EMM supports a process of mutual understanding, which may already paves the way to accommodation of worldviews. The Social Theory (ST) of a sustainable, collaborative learning society takes this to the level of shared meaning by exploring cultural identity explicitly.