The Role of Personal Experience and Social Interaction in Knowledge Creation and Utilisation.
This paper reports the results of an empirical examination of the effects of personal experience and social interaction on individual knowledge and performance in a specific decision making task context. The study revealed a differential effect of increased experience on the quality of participants' decisions. In particular, increased experience did not result in significant decision improvement in the non-interactive social environment, but did so in the interactive social environment. The study also revealed that social interaction was beneficial irrespective of personal experience, and led to better performance at both low and high experience levels. The results suggest that individuals may benefit from, in combination, opportunities for personal experimentation and social interaction with others. These results may be useful to all those responsible for planning knowledge management strategies aimed at enhancing knowledge creation and utilization. Includes two tables and one figure. (Contains 48 references.) (Author) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. THE ROLE OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND °,7g. SOCIAL INTERACTION IN KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND UTILISATION