Abstract:

Tacit knowledge is central to workplace learning, yet practitioners routinely act on judgments they cannot easily explain. This challenge intensifies in digitally mediated work, where tools can accelerate documentation while bypassing the examination of the reasoning that gives captured knowledge its value for reuse.

This paper presents EASCI, a five-stage framework — Experience, Articulation, Structuring, Consolidation, and Innovation — for externalizing tacit knowledge in workplace settings. The framework was developed through a scoping review of 55 sources, practitioner interviews (N = 10) in high-stress public-sector organizations, and iterative design of prototypes. These activities produced seven design principles governing cognitive scaffolding, social validation, and AI involvement, which were operationalized in a functional prototype that implements all five stages.

Preliminary design observations indicate that staged decomposition reduces cognitive overload during articulation and that peer validation significantly shapes artifact quality. A full empirical evaluation is planned.

The framework provides a practical, falsifiable structure for making professional knowledge shareable without stripping away the context and judgment on which it depends. Its core argument is that workplace learning is strengthened when digital support scaffolds articulation and peer review rather than substituting for them.

Keywords:

Tacit knowledge externalization, Workplace learning, EASCI, Guided articulation, Peer validation, Knowledge capture, Reflective practice, Design science research, Provenance, Knowledge reuse, Professional learning, Tacit knowledge.