negative knowledge at work

Dissertation project „Negative knowledge in work contexts“Martin Gartmeier, University of Regensburg

August 2008

Theoretical approaches and Theoretical approaches and empirical results from elder care nursingempirical results from elder care nursing

Martin Gartmeier

University of RegensburgInstitute of Educational ScienceResearch Project “Workplace Learning”Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

Prof. Dr. Hans Gruber und Prof. em. Dr. Helmut Heid

Negative knowledge at workNegative knowledge at work


Overview

• What is negative knowledge? An example

• Theoretical background

• Implications for research

• An interview study in elder care nursing

• Results and discussion


What is negative knowledge? An example from a medical context (Oser & Spychiger, 2005)

In a Nepalese hospital, a local doctor introduces visiting physicians by confronting them with “seven easy ways to kill a newborn infant (Without even trying)”, e.g.: • Feed infants with buffalo milk• Don’t regularly monitor vital signs• Don’t wash your hands prior to examining infants

Basic assumptions: Negative knowledge is knowledge about what is wrong in

a certain context. It has value for professionals, in that it is relevant for

avoiding mistakes and thus contributes to professional competence.


Theoretical background

Minsky (1994)

– Negative knowledge is an important feature of expertise. Experts must not only know how to achieve goals, but also how to thereby avoid serious problems (complementary relationship to “positive” knowledge).

– This is accomplished through negative knowledge which serves as an “inhibitory agency”.

– It is difficult to research negative knowledge, as it has a non-behavioural character and thus is assumably to a large degree hidden from consciousness.



Oser & Spychiger (1999, 2005)

– To know about how something is not is valuable for knowing how it is; to know how something does not work is valuable for knowing how it works ( different forms of negative knowledge).

– Negative knowledge is typically acquired through experiencing and learning from errors. Thereby, the quality of the learning processes as well as the social environment are important.

– Function of negative knowledge: Capture lessons learned from errors and thus provide security in knowing and acting.



Parviainen & Eriksson (2006)

– Negative knowledge as important aspect of expertise ( Minsky), especially in dynamic work environments.

– Changes at work demand the abandonment of old knowledge and work routines. Value of negative knowledge in such un- and re-learning processes:

– Awareness of outdated knowledge: “Bracketing” knowledge.

– Awareness about lacks of own knowledge: To know what one does not know.


Implications for the context of workplace learningAn important strategy of workplace learning is learning from

errors:

1. What are prerequisites or predictors of mistakes being successfully learned from? (E.g. “error-anxiety”; Rybowiak, Garst, Frese & Batinic, 1999)

2. Which activities are undertaken in order to learn from errors? (Reflective cause analysis; Bauer & Mulder, 2008)

Negative knowledge relates to another perspective:

3. What are outcomes of learning from errors? And how do they contribute to the avoidance of future errors? (E.g. Keith & Frese, 2008)

Negative knowledge captures lessons learned from workplace errors and thus should contribute to employees ability to avoid errors at work.


Negative knowledge in elder care: The studyPrimary goal: Elicitation and qualitative analysis of elder care

nurses negative knowledge. Sample: 37 elder care nurses from a nursing home in

southern Germany. Instrument: Prompting task interviews (E.g. Custers,

Boshuizen & Schmidt, 1998). – 20 nursing and medical diagnoses (E.g. Dementia,

parental role conflict, diabetes)– Interview questions: What do you think one should pay

special attention to in interaction with elderly people with the following diagnosis? What should be avoided?

Analysis: A categorical scheme was developed deductively and inductively. The scheme served as a basis for a qualitative content-analysis of the data.

Research questions: Which different forms of negative knowledge can be identified? What conclusions can be drawn on the error-avoidant function of negative knowledge?


Negative knowledge in elder care: Results

Four facets of elder care nurses professional knowledge could

be differentiated:

Procedural- / declarative- / vicarious- and self-reflective knowledge.

All statements labeled as negative knowledge could be plausibly subsumed under one of those four facets.

Subsequently, the facets are exemplified through selected,

negative statements. For each facet, related workplace errors

are outlined.



Diagnosis social isolation:

Negative declarative knowledge:To know how something is not

“We sometimes see that as social isolation, but for the people themselves, it may be different. Maybe they enjoy being by themselves and need a larger degree of solitude.”

Error: To interpret a phenomenon in a wrong way (and react inappropriately).



Diagnosis feeding tube:

Negative procedural knowledge:To know what not to do

“Don’t administer the nutriment too fast, otherwise the person will have to throw up”.

To know what must not be tolerated

“Don’t let the feeding tube become constipated or blocked in any way”

Errors: To act in a wrong way. To omit a necessary action.



Diagnosis loss of social status:

Negative vicarious knowledge:To know how somebody is not

“Some residents just don’t want to realize their situation, they want to keep up their image of being, e.g. a mayor”

Error: To not respecting the individuality of a resident.



Diagnosis feeding tube:

Negative self-reflective knowledge:Knowledge about limitations of own competence and responsibility

“As a nurse, you don’t need to calculate the flux rate (the company supplying the nutrition calculates the rate)”.

Error: Exceed limitations of one’s professional role (consequences: get stressed out; get into legal problems)


Negative knowledge in elder care: Conclusion

Negative declarative knowledge

Negative vicarious knowledge

Negative-procedural knowledge

Negative self-reflective knowledge

Taken together, negative knowledge is part of employees error-knowledge which comprises knowledge about possible and frequent workplace errors and about their enabling conditions. It contains situation specific as well as more general components.

The results show that negative knowledge is a possibility to explain the capacity of professionals to anticipate errors and to act accordingly: “Forewarned is forearned”“Danger pin-pointed, danger averted”


Discussion:• Negative knowledge as a way in which what is learned from

mistakes influences future practice.• The study design allows for investigating negative

knowledge inits breadth, not in its depth.

• No real conclusions possible on the relative importance of the effect as well as on the actual application of negative knowledge.

Outlook:• The next focus will be to investigate how negative

knowledge develops along with prolonged professional expertise in terms of its magnitude and specificity.

Negative knowledge in elder care: Discussion and Outlook


If you found the presentation interesting, you might like this paper:

Gartmeier, M., Bauer, J., Gruber, H., & Heid, H. (2008). Negative knowledge: Understanding professional learning and

expertise. Vocations and Learning, 1(2), 87-103.

Please ask me for free copies!

Thanks for your attention!Thanks for your attention!

negative knowledge at work

Education

value of negative knowledge

positive knowledge

bracketing knowledge

self reflective knowledge

abandonment of old knowledge

work contextspage

work routines

work contexts page