When we hear transfer, most of us first think of packing our bags and flying off on vacation. And rightly so, because transfer describes the process of getting from A to B, regardless of whether it's a flight from home to a distant country or the journey from the airport to the hotel.
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And transfer is not only reserved for the tourism industry, but is also known from sport, for example, when an important player is to be transferred from one club to another for a lot of money. Speaking of money, transfers are also known in the business world, e.g. for payments abroad in foreign currencies. Actually, every movement from one account to another is already a transfer. But we don't need to worry. Our money is not gone after a transfer. It's just with someone else. In economy, however, transfer has another important meaning, which it shares with both politics and science: the transfer of information and knowledge. Knowledge can be pure "know how" in thought or already incorporated into an object, usually of technical nature. And this is where technology transfer comes into play and the possibility of being able to exploit research results commercially. Traditionally, this understanding of transfer was predominant for a long time, but this understanding is increasingly expanding in the direction of knowledge transfer, which is defined as the "passing on of acquired knowledge" according to the Duden dictionary. The transfer of knowledge has been one of the basic tasks of universities since their inception, both in teaching and in the transfer of personnel from graduates. But for a long time, this transfer process was not anchored in the consciousness of the players and society or was not perceived as such.
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In the blog of the management consultancy and software company Sage, the definition of the term in the lexicon (https://www.sage.com/de-de/blog/lexikon/wissenstransfer/) is expanded to include spontaneous, systemic, personalized and codified transfer. According to this definition, the transfer of knowledge from person to person often takes place spontaneously, e.g. through conversations in the coffee kitchen. This can be promoted by creating opportunities for chance encounters. This exchange can be systematized by purposefully bringing people together at events. The transfer of codified knowledge refers to the systematic consolidation and storage of explicit knowledge and its dissemination via information and communication systems. The personalized and codified transfer of knowledge is of great importance for organizations such as universities as well as for private companies. This is because the recording and availability of research results as well as experience, tips and tricks are essential for smooth operations. Information is often lost due to high staff turnover, particularly at universities but also at companies. The loss of implicit and explicit knowledge then quickly leads to a situation where highly complex devices can no longer be operated or analytical data becomes "moldy" on personal data storage devices. While companies use knowledge transfer to retain knowledge internally, universities and colleges have the explicit task of transferring knowledge to the economy, politics and society. However, the methods used are very similar or even identical. Here are some typical examples of personalized knowledge transfer:
Mentoring
Mentoring is a special form of personal knowledge transfer. Here, the older, experienced manager (mentor) passes on their specialist knowledge to a younger junior employee (mentee) who is eager to learn. In most cases, the mentor supports the mentee for a longer period of time and accompanies both the professional and personal processes. In this way, the younger person can be given access to their own networks in the company, but also be explained the spoken and unspoken rules that apply in the company. High learning success requires not only a functioning relationship between the two parties, but much more grown trust.
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To prevent abuse in targeted career development, superiors should never be used as mentors, nor should mentees see their position in the company jeopardized by them. Mentoring requires not only a great deal of commitment but also a high degree of openness from both parties involved (www.kofa.de).
Learning Tandems
Learning tandems are a structured form of knowledge transfer that is carried out between two professionals with different levels of expertise. It can be handled very flexibly and does not require a great deal of preparation time, as both specialists carry out the knowledge exchange directly in the work process. This form of knowledge transfer is therefore particularly suitable for the handover of key positions and in the skilled trades. For a limited period of time, an experienced specialist works together with a less experienced one and guides them in the new position or in the new process through regular discussions. Questions of understanding are clarified directly during the work process and serve to check the knowledge gained by the less experienced specialist. As the level of competence increases, the more experienced specialist withdraws from the learning tandem (www.kofa.de). There is often an age gap in learning tandems, i.e. the more experienced professional is usually older than the less experienced one. However, this does not necessarily have to be the case, especially in companies in which learning tandems are created through internal rotation processes. How long a learning tandem lasts depends on both the complexity of the joint tasks and the personal attitudes of the two professionals. Trust in the inexperienced specialist's willingness to learn and in the skills of the other specialist is a basic prerequisite, as is patience on both sides (www.implizites-mitarbeiterwissen.de).
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In academia, such learning tandem models often exist in the life sciences, natural sciences and engineering between Bachelor's and Master's students, Master's students and doctoral students as well as doctoral students and postdocs (postdoctoral fellows, young scientists who have already completed their doctorate) or professors, especially when it comes to learning methods and the correct use of techniques. By working together in a learning tandem, the less experienced researchers gain insights into the knowledge and skills of the more experienced ones. The overriding goal is to learn a new task in the work process itself.
Mixed-aged Teams
While learning tandems focus on teams of two with different skill levels, mixed-age teams are made up of a small group of members of different ages who together represent all skill levels. Here, old learns and benefits from young and vice versa (www.kofa.de). The advantage of these mixed-age teams is the exchange of different knowledge and experience backgrounds (www.persomatch.de). The formation of mixed-age teams leads to a better integration of younger and older specialists as well as to a reduction in age discrimination and prejudice. Appreciation of the younger professionals leads to greater self-confidence and more self-assurance in carrying out tasks. For the older professionals, the appreciation in the mixed team leads to more motivation and the feeling of being needed. Due to the different horizons of experience in the mixed age teams, new challenges can often be solved better and faster (www.implizites-mitarbeiterwissen.de).
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Mixed-age teams are the order of the day, especially in the field of science, as the working groups contain a colorful mix of different educational and age levels. This applies to scientific as well as technical and science support staff.
Teaching and Conferences
The purpose of teaching is not only to impart basic knowledge to students, but also to provide an insight into current research areas and to present the latest research findings. Teaching can take various forms at the university, e.g. as a lecture, seminar, colloquium, tutorial or practical course, but also as the supervision of academic work. Furthermore, the latest findings are brought to schools and thus to the general public via teacher training courses. Subject-specific knowledge can also be passed on to external persons in further education formats.
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Another opportunity to disseminate knowledge at universities in a broad but specific context are specialist conferences and congresses. These are used by scientists to seek intensive exchange during lectures and poster sessions. After the congress or symposium, the posters presented are often hung up in the corridors of the institutes for the exchange of knowledge and mutual information.
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This ensures that scientists, visitors and, above all, students can gain an overview of the fields of work of the individual working groups in the various departments of the diverse institutes. At the same time, so-called "Science Fairs" give the public an insight into the variety of fields of work at the universities. These offer the transfer of knowledge to society, whereby the research results are presented to an interested public in an understandable way.
Research Cooperation
Research collaborations between two or more partners (usually organizations and companies) are another way of transferring knowledge. Ideally, each of the partners contributes their specialist expertise to the research and development project in order to reach the goal more quickly, which would not have been achieved alone without the knowledge of the other. In contract research, on the other hand, the commissioning company pays a university, for example, to use its knowledge to successfully carry out an assignment, e.g. a measurement with scientific equipment.
Personnel Transfer
Personnel transfer is one of the most important forms of knowledge transfer, as graduates from all disciplines use their acquired knowledge to enter the world of business, politics and society. With their scientific expertise, they contribute to generating innovations in their working lives that benefit society.
Codified Knowledge Transfer
In addition to personalized knowledge transfer, we also know codified knowledge transfer, in which knowledge is passed on via intermediate media, so-called information and communication systems. In turn, people can decode this documented knowledge with the help of their five senses. Auditory and visual perception play key roles here, as most stored information from early history to the present day is based on the ability to decipher through an audiovisual system. Both the personalized transfer of knowledge and the codified transfer of knowledge are characterized by the transfer of audiovisual information. Personalized knowledge transfer relies primarily on language, facial expressions and gestures, while the transfer of documented knowledge has long been dominated by the visual component (reports and images on various media) and only recently have carriers for both senses merged in order to be able to process combined information (audiovisual media).
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Summary
Regardless of whether knowledge is exchanged in person between people at the coffee table or via stone slab, papyrus roll, diskette and USB stick, it remains an essential process for universities and companies. The former want to fulfill their mission of making knowledge available to the public and therefore push the transfer of knowledge to the outside world, while companies must prevent the valuable knowledge they have gained from being lost again due to staff turnover. Various forms of personalized knowledge transfer are implemented here in order to secure knowledge within the company.
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In addition to the forms of knowledge transfer mentioned here, there are two other very important ways to protect knowledge and still make it public, namely through technology transfer and start-ups. Both fields have always played a major role in the expansion of companies, and spin-offs are now also becoming increasingly important at universities. But more on that soon.