
Dr Viktor Dorfler
Senior Lecturer
Management Science
Area of Expertise
My research, teaching and knowledge exchange activities are intertwined. In my teaching I use my research results as well as illustrative examples from my consultancy, my consultancy is informed by my research and also provides data as well as new ideas for further research and also on how to teach particular topics, and so forth in cycles. In this sense my expertise can be divided into two main areas:
Knowledge and Knowing
I have done a great deal of research into the personal as well as transpersonal aspects of knowledge and knowing and also worked with various organisations on making better use of what they know. I can primarily help organisations in fostering their talents, including grandmaster-apprentice relationships. Related further topics include creativity and intuition at a personal level and Communities of Practice (CoPs) at the transpersonal level. These topics have strong links to the following topics on supporting these knowing processes with AI.
Artificial Intelligence
My research has served as a basis for developing AI software, a knowledge-based expert system (KBS); in harmony with the above, the focus is on creating qualitative models of expert-level knowledge. I was leading the development of AI software 1999-2004, and as knowledge engineer I used it to support knowledge workers in general and C-level decision makers in particular in a wide range of decision situations, including outsourcing, product launch, tendering (both applying for tenders as well as evaluating applications), performance evaluation for knowledge workers, medical diagnosis, R&D decisions, and credit risk evaluation.
Prize And Awards
Publications
Research Interests
My ambitious aim is to develop a dynamic model and possibly theory of cognition. I have developed, with my collaborators, a model of knowledge levels which serves as a conceptual framework for the empirical investigation into the highest ‘grandmaster’ level of knowledge. To this end I conducted 20 in-depth unstructured interviews with grandmasters (17 with Nobel Laureates).
My research in knowledge modelling underlies the development of AI software, a knowledge-based expert system (KBS); resulting in new algorithms, software design, etc. Conversely, I use AI as a modelling tool in various other research topics. The process of knowledge engineering is also a research topic on its own right.
Towards a Dynamic Theory of Knowledge
Models of Personal Knowledge
- Types of personal knowledge
- Levels of personal knowledge
- Personal intuition
Models of Personal Knowing Processes
- Intuitive and integrated rationality
- Personal learning
- Personal creativity
Models of Trans-Personal Knowing Processes
- Knowledge sharing
- Master-apprentice relationship
- Executive coaching
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Philosophy of AI
- The future of AI
- Validation in expert systems
- Reductive reasoning in expert systems
Developing AI
- Hybrid AI
- Human + AI
- 3D concept mapping: Doctus Knowledge Galaxy
Using AI
- Coaching and kb-DSS
- Knowledge engineering and facilitating
- Modelling with Doctus KBS
Knowledge-based Strategizing
Managing innovation and knowledge
- Knowledge management
- Innovation management
- Gamification
Knowledge-based decision making
- Personal decisions
- Communities and practice
- Performance and quality
Research Philosophy and Methods
Philosophical approaches and frameworks
- Process philosophy
- Transdisciplinarity
- Investigating the extraordinary
Methodological approaches and frameworks
- Reflection and reflexivity
- Against methods
- Generalizability through iterative learning
Applied Research Methods
- Insider Explanatory Phenomenology
- Intuitive Cyclic Phenomenology
- Cognitive and causal mapping
Teaching-Learning-Education
Philosophy and Methods of Teaching and Learning
- Online teaching and learning
- Grandmaster-apprentice relationship
- Post-experiential education
Professional Activities
Projects
Project 1: AI Strategy and Strategic AI. Conceptual work about bringing AI into the mainstream strategy, adopting a process view.
Project 2: Exploring experiences of AI implementation.
Project 3: The Michelin-drive – participant ethnography. An exploratory study of restaurants that have been recently awarded a new Michelin star; trying to understand the strategizing of creativity in these haute cuisine restaurants.
Contact
Dr
Viktor
Dorfler
Senior Lecturer
Management Science
Email: viktor.dorfler@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 4540