*5.5. Types of Knowledge*

This relates to; conceptual, dispositional, procedural and locative knowledge forms [40]. One of the key objectives of learning from incidents is to identify the type of knowledge needed to prevent an issue recurring. When a reportable issue for example is discovered, the submitted report will identify 'what' happened. Subsequent follow-up will set out to determine 'why' the issue occurred. The guiding principles of 'how' to perform the task or operation are often contained in procedures or data particular to the task. The information contained in procedures will enable a person to utilise other forms of knowledge. Prevailing culture within an organisation will have an impact on learning from incidents. If a strong commercial culture exists, this may have an impact on for example the depth and breadth of learning from incidents within the company. Induction and initial training for new sta ff is an important element for demonstrating where organisational sources of information can be accessed. Accident data repositories contain many well documented examples of human factor related precursors to incidents. Many of which may have originated in poor access to approved data and culminated in serious and possibly preventable incidents. Acknowledging and addressing the limitations related to the types of knowledge when developing continuation training programmes would have a positive impact on participants. The enabling industry requirements do not specify any discernible di fferences in how the types of knowledge are di fferentiated. A review of the human factors syllabus requirements did not highlight a need to appreciate or account for these human centred limitations when designing and delivering training lessons.
