Enhancement of knowledge-based framework for military observer in peacekeeping activities

When military observers perform a peacekeeping mission, there are many experiences that would have been gained by them during the course of a security mission. Such experience is known as tacit knowledge. When these observers return to Malaysia, this tacit knowledge remains in their minds as long as they are not transferred in the form of explicit knowledge. Therefore, this research study is to develop knowledge based on awareness of the situation among Malaysian observers. This collection of knowledge only focuses on the experience of military observers while addressing the various situations they have faced during safety activities. As this study focuses on the collection of tacit knowledge of situation awareness, the model theories used are the SECI’s model by Nonaka (2000) and the Endsley’s model by Endsley (1995). Both of these models are combined to form the knowledge-based framework that will serve as guidelines for the researcher in carrying out this study. This study is a qualitative study using a phenomenology research approach. There were twenty (20) military observers involved as respondents in this study. The research techniques used are document review and indepth interviews. Document review focuses on explicit knowledge while in-depth interviews focuses on tacit knowledge. The findings obtained from this study, especially from in-depth interviews, have succeeded in accumulating one hundred and forty-five (145) situations. All the situations that have been successfully collected have been documented in the form of a user requirement handbook, which will be an additional reading material for prospective military observers. In conclusion, this study is aimed at gathering as many military observer experiences as possible so that the experiences can be transferred to the beneficiaries, especially to the Malaysian Peacekeeping Centre (MPC) in specific and to the any appropriate agencies worldwide in general.