From SECI to EASCI: Operationalising Tacit Knowledge Externalisation

Abstract

Organisations rely on tacit knowledge in complex, high-stress work, yet externalising it is difficult. The SECI model identifies externalisation as the bridge between personal expertise and organisational memory, but treats it as a single phase and offers limited guidance when articulation is partial, cognitively constrained, or obscured by GenAI. This paper proposes EASCI (Experience-Articulation-Structuring-Consolidation-Innovation), which decomposes externalisation into three operations. Articulation reveals partial reasoning through anchored prompts; Structuring organises fragments into provisional knowledge artefacts through abduction with mandatory counterhypotheses; Consolidation subjects artefacts to peer review before organisational use. Experience and Innovation anchor the lifecycle, seven design principles bound GenAI to scaffolding roles, and a W3C PROV-O layer preserves human-AI attribution. A scoping review, qualitative interviews in high-stress public-sector contexts, and participatory design inform the framework. An investigative design case demonstrates feasibility under the EU AI Act and Law Enforcement Directive. Six falsifiable propositions and four study designs address a persistent gap: knowledge-management frameworks are widely adopted but rarely tested.