Tacit Knowledge for Military Leadership: Seeking Insight into the Acquisition and Use of Practical Knowledge

Abstract

The goal of the project was to provide preliminary insight into the process of tacit knowledge acquisition and to support the development of tools to assess the use of various knowledge-acquisition processes in solving practical leadership problems. These requirements were met by (a) reviewing relevant theory and research on tacit knowledge, leadership, and knowledge acquisition; (b) reporting results of analyses performed on free text responses provided by Army officers to tacit- knowledge scenarios; and (c) discussing the implications of this research for ongoing efforts to identify and assess the processes associated with tacit-knowledge acquisition. Over the course of the multi-year project evidence was discovered that tacit knowledge from the stories and advice leaders shared about their experiences could be used to developed tools for measuring the possession of tacit knowledge and evidence was obtained that tacit knowledge relates to effective leadership. Relationships were found between rank and tacit-knowledge scores on the company and battalion inventories, providing support for the relationship between experience and tacit knowledge.

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