Some of the key issues linked to the use of different forms of knowledge at work include:

• Formal knowledge
• Informal knowledge
• Technical knowledge and skills
• People skills
• Tacit knowledge
• Procedural knowledge
• Process knowledge
• Knowledge of the organisational culture
• Collective and organisational knowlegde
• Knowledge transfer
• Emotional labour?
• Emotional intelligence?

  In many companies, it seems that a core capacity to solve problems involves making visible the relationships among processes (between machines, tools, materials, and people). The TLRP Techno-Mathematical Literacies project produced a paper, that is a good starting point for a consideration of some of these issues, on: The importance of making the invisible visible.

Michael Eraut (2004) talking about personal knowledge in Informal Learning in the workplace argues: 

'As a counterpart to cultural knowledge, I define personal knowledge as what individual persons bring to situations that enables them to think, interact and perform. Codified versions of personal knowledge are associated with the concept of authorship; and provide the basis for assignments and assessments within educational programmes from which more than the replication of publicly available knowledge is expected. But my definition is intended to include non-codified personal knowledge and a far broader concept of knowledge than academic performance. For example, it includes not only personalised versions of public codified knowledge but also everyday knowledge of people and situations, know-how in the form of skills and practices, memories of episodes and events, self-knowledge, attitudes and emotions. Moreover, it focuses on the use value of knowledge rather than its exchange value in a world increasingly populated by qualifications. This implies a holistic rather than fragmented approach to knowledge; because, unless one stops to deliberate, the knowledge one uses is already available in an integrated form and ready for action' (p. 17).

Full reference:

• Eraut, M (2004) Informal learning in the workplace, Studies in Continuing Education 26 (2), pp. 247-273.