ABSTRACT
Inquiries into knowledge capture and use have hitherto focused primarily on commercial organisations who seek to gain competitive advantage through individual and organisational development. This chapter describes the methodology and report findings from interviews and documentary sources, and develops theory, policy and evidence from the sources. A large metropolitan fire service offers a different milieu in terms of Operating practices, hierarchical structures and the relationships between knowledge, learning and action. In exploring these relationships Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs), also emerge as important for training and learning since there are important connections between how knowledge is captured, rendered and then conveyed as organisational views of tasks and their resolution. The focus upon rendered knowledge arises from a broader awareness of fire service activity. As knowledge rendered from a range of sources they over-simplify and denigrate tasks and in attempting to distil knowledge and practice, become disconnected from it.
