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Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
1987. Vol 52. No. 6. 1:36-1247
Tacit Knowledge in Everyday Intelligent Behavior
Richard K. Wagner
Florida State University
Twoexperimentswere conducted to examine the scope and structure of tacit knowledge. In Experi-
ment 1, three groups, whose members differed in level of professional advancement in the f ie ld of
academic psychology, were presented with simulated work-related situations designed to measure
their tacit knowledge. Between-groupdifferences in tacit knowledge were found as a fu n c t io n of level
of professional advancement, and strong within-group relations were found between tacit knowledge
and external criteria such as rate of citation. The scope of tacit knowledge was f o u n d to include (a)
knowledge useful in managing oneself, others, and one's tasks, (b) knowledge applicable to both
short-term and long-term contexts, and (c) knowledge of ideal quality aswel l aspractical reality. The
results of testing four classes of alternative models of the structure of tacit knowledge supported a
model characterized by a general factor, similar in form to Spearman's#for academic tasks. Experi-
ment 2 replicated and extended these results to the domain of business management.
Many professionals saythatmuch,if not most,of the learning
that matters to their careers took place after they completed
their formal schooling. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for
people who are highly successful in their occupations to have
unremarkable academic records and, conversely, for people
with historiesof distinguished performance in school to be only
moderately successful in their occupations.
The lack of astrongrelation between actual occupational per-
formance and scores on either IQtestsor employment tests sug-
gests that these observations may not be completely unfounded.
Although IQ test scores correlate moderately (.4-.7) with vari-
ous measures of school achievement and performance in occu-
pational training programs, typical correlations between IQ
tests or employment tests and actual performance fall at the .2
level (Ghiselli, 1966; Wigdor & Garner, 1982). Correlations of
this magnitude indicate that performance on such tests ac-
counts for only small amounts of variance (about 4%) in occu-
pational performance.
Neisser (19761has argued that the tasks found on IQtestsand
in school settings measure academic intelligence, which is but
one part of intelligence broadly defined. In contrast to aca-
demic intelligence, Neisser denned "intelligent performance in
natural settings" as"responding appropriately interms ofone's
long-range and short-range goals, given the actual facts of the
this research was supported in part by Contract MDA90385K.0305
from the Army Research Institute.
This article is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to thefac-
ulty of Yale University. I gratefully acknowledge the contributions of
my dissertation advisor. Robert J. Sternberg, and the dissertationcom-
mittee members, Wendell Gamer, Edmond Gordon, Richard Hack-
man, and Roger Weissberg. I also acknowledge the contributions of
members of the Sternberg research group.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Richard K. Wagner, Department of Psychology, Florida State Univer-
sity. Tallahassee, Florida 32306.
situation as onediscoversthem"(p. 137; seealso Charlesworth.
1976; Wagner, 1986).
Researchers have proposed a number of traditional ap-
proaches to measuring competencies required for success in
real-world pursuits (see Sternberg & Wagner. 1986). Recently,
cognitive psychologists have taken a knowledge-based approach
in their study of how "experts" and "novices" differ in their
performance on tasks relevant to their domain of expertise. (See
Chi, Glaser, & Rees, 1982, for a comprehensive review of this
literature.) Although the knowledge-based approach has been
applied mostly to academic-intelligence-type tasks, Wagner and
Sternberg (1985) used this approach in their investigation of
practical tasks faced by business managers and academic psy-chologists. They proposed that a hallmark of practical intelli-
gence is the acquisition and use of tad! knowledge—practical
know-how that usually is not openly expressed or stated and
which must be acquired in the absence of direct instruction.
(SeePolanyi, 1976, and Schon, 1983, for related conceptions of
practical know-how.)
If the acquisition of tacit knowledge is indeed a hallmark of
practical intelligence, what is the scope and structure of such
knowledge?
Scope of Tacit Knowledge
The scope of tacit knowledge refers to the range of situations
to which tacit knowledge may be applied. Toexamine the scope
of tacit knowledge I categorized it on the basisof (a) the content
of a situation, that is, whether it primarily involves managing
oneself, managing others, or managing one's tasks; (b) the con-
text of a situation, that is, whether it is local (short range, self-
contained) orglobal (long range, related to the "big picture") in
nature; and (c) orientation, that is, whether one's focus is ideal-
istic or pragmatic.
Three Kinds of Content
Tacit knowledge about managing self refers to knowledge
about self-motivational and self-organizational aspects of per-
1236
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TACIT KNOWLEDGE 1237
formance in work-related situations. An example of tacit
knowledge about managing self is knowinghowbest to over-
come procrastination. Tacit knowledge about managingtasks
refers to knowledge of how to do specific work-related tasks
well. An example of tacit knowledge about managing tasks is
knowing the value of beginning a manuscript by telling the
reader whatmajor pointsone intends to make. Tacit knowledge
about managing others refers to knowledge about managing
one's subordinates and one's interactions with one's peers. An
example of tacit knowledge about managing others isknowing
how to reward subordinates so as to maximizeboth productiv-
ity and job satisfaction.
Although some situations primarily involve only one of the
three kindsoftacit knowledge (e.g., the problem ofprocrastina-
tion), most require each of the three kinds of tacitknowledge
to lesser or greater degrees. For example, chairing a grant review
study section is a task that requires considerable tacit knowl-
edgeabout managing oneself, others, and one'stasks.
Two ContextsA local context refers to a focus on the short-term accom-
plishment of the specific task at hand. No consideration isgiven
to one's reputation, career goals, or to the "big picture." A
global context refers to a focus on long-range objectives and on
how the present situation fits into the bigger picture.
Real-world accomplishment requires practical knowledge
that can be applied in both local and global contexts. It is not
enough to be knowledgeable about selecting tasks that will pay
off in the long term (global context) if one lacks the knowledge
about how to do well the tasks one has selected (local context).
Conversely, beingknowledgeableabout specific tasks (local con-
text) but not about howthey relate to one another (global con-
text) can result in doing verywell at what may turn out, in thelong run, to be the wrong tasks, or it can result in missing a
connection between a problem faced today and one faced last
month and thereby failing todiscover their root cause.
Two Orientations
The comments of respondents in earlier work suggested that
therearetimeswhenaperson's overriding orientation in agiven
situation is idealistic; that is, it focuses on howgood a solution
isideally. There areother times when aperson's overridingori-
entation ispragmatic; that is, it focuses on howworkable a po-
tential solutionis.
Ideal in the present context refers to a judgment about thequalityofsome courseofaction without regard to howpractical
or impractical it might be. For example, the strategy ofconsult-
ingwith eachofone's subordinates individuallyon all decisions
that mightaffect them isperhaps better ideally than it is inactu-
ality.
Effective performance requires knowledge relevant to both
orientations: Liabilities are associated with being overly prag-
matic aswell asoverly idealistic. Consider the task ofmaintain-
ing morale in the face ofpolicy changes that employees inyour
division of the companywill find threatening. Writing a memo
to these employees stating that you expect their morale to re-
ORIENTATION I D E A L I S T I C
\
» T i r
\\
\\\̂
CONTENT
T A S K S
L O CAL G L O B AL
C O N T E X T
Figure I . T he tacit knowledge framework.
main positive is a practical idea, but one that happens to be not
very good. Conversely, taking one's employees out to dinner
individually to convince them that the policy changeswill be to
everyone's benefit in the long run may be abetter idea than the
memojust described, but a highly impractical one if there are
a large number of employees in one's division.
Combining Contents, Contexts, and O rientation in aTacit Knowledge Framework
The framework that guided evaluation of the scope and
structure of tacit knowledge crosses content, context, and ori-
entation, yielding the 12 possible combinations illustrated in
Figure 1.
Structure of Tacit Knowledge
Consider the structure of traditional academic abilities. In-
vestigators generally agree that the structure is hierarchical,
with at least three levels. At the top is gor a general factor that
represents the positive manifold found among correlations for
almost all cognitive tasks (Jensen, in press; Spearman, 1927).
Positive manifold refers to the fact that the intercorrelations
among most cognitive tasks are positive. At the next level are
group factors, examples ofwhich include fluid and crystallized
intelligence (Cattell, 1963, 1971) and Thurstone's (1938) pri-
mary mental abilities of verbal comprehension, verbal fluency,
number, space, associative memory, perceptual speed, andgen-
eral reasoning. At the lowest level are task-specific factors.
These factors explain the portion of a task's variance that is
unique to the task, and thus they are of no value inaccounting
for shared variance among tasks.
In this study, I examine four classes of models of the struc-
ture of tacit knowledge. Thesemodels, which derive from anal-
yses of the structure of academic abilities, are presented in
Figure2.
Two-Factor Models
These models get their name from the fact that task perfor-
mance isexplainedin terms of ageneral factor and a task-spe-
cific factor for each of the tasks used. The specific factors are
unimportant because theydo not account for any shared vari-
ance. The interpretation of two-factor models when they are
applied to the tacit knowledge framework is that individual
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1238 R I C H A R D K. WAGNE R
differences in tacit knowledgewill be general to each content,
context, and orientation.
Hierarchical Models
Hierarchical models share with the two-factor models the
idea that people who are good at one thing tend to be good at
everything, but added is the notion of group factors. Agroupfactor is a factor that accounts for shared variance among some
but not all tasks. In terms of the tacit knowledge framework,
shared variance among tacit knowledge scores would be ex-
plained in terms of a general factor, as before, aswell as in terms
ofgroup factors that might correspond to a local versus a global
context or to the contents of managing self, others, and tasks.
Primary Ability Models
According toprimary ability models, shared variance among
tasks is explained by a set of independent group factors. In
terms of the tacit knowledge framework, primary ability
models posit that people may be knowledgeableabout manag-
ing others, for instance, but not about managing themselves ortheir tasks.
Anarchy Model
This model posits that there is nocommon variance orgener-
ality in tacit knowledge. How knowledgeable one is depends en-
tirely on one's specific task. In terms of the tacit knowledge
framework, there would be no relations between performance
across work-related situations. This model is plausible if it
should turn out that what one leams from one's experience is
specific to the situation inwhich it is learned.
Overview of the Present Experiments
I conductedtwoexperiments, oneeach in thedomainsofaca-
demic psychology and business management. In Experiment 1,
a tacit knowledge measure for the domain ofacademic psychol-
ogy was administered to three groups of respondents whose
membersdiffered inamounts offormal trainingand experience
in the field of academic psychology. Tacit knowledge was com-
pared across groups, and the within-group relations between
tacit knowledge and career performance were examined. I as-
sessed the scope of tacit knowledge in terms of the tacit knowl-
edge framework and tested alternative models of the structure
of tacit knowledge. In Experiment 2, which served to extend the
results of Experiment 1 to a second domain, a tacitknowledge
measure for the domain of business management was adminis-tered to three groups of individuals whose members differed in
amounts of formal trainingandexperience in the professionof
business management.
Experiment 1
Method
Subjects
There were three groups of subjects, totaling212 individuals in all,
whose membersdiffered in amounts of formal training an d experience
in the field of academic psychology.
The faculty group consisted of91 faculty membersin 26 departments
of psychology. This group included 5 1 members of 11 departments
highly rated in terms of the scholarly quality of the departmental faculty
(Jones, Lindzey, &Coggeshall, 1982). The mean ratingof thescholarly
quality of the faculty in these 11 departments was 4.0 on a 5-point scale
(0 = low, 5 = high). Also included in the faculty group were39members
of 15 departments less highly rated in terms of the scholarlyquali ty of
I . T W O - F A C T O R M O D E L S ( S P E A RM A N, T H O M S O N )
SL OL TL SG OG TG
t T t t T t
II . H I E R A R C H I C A L M O D E L S ( C A T T E L L , V E R N O N )
SL OL TL SG OG TG
T t t T T 1
SL OL TL SO OG TG
TTTTTTI I I . P R I M A R Y A B I L I T Y M O D E L S ( T H U R S T O N E )
s—s
SL OL TL SG OG TG
t 1 t t 1 tIV . A N A R C H Y M O D E L
SL OL TL SG OG TG
t t t t t TFigure 2.Fourclassesofmodelsofthe structureoftacit knowledge(S
self; O = others; T = tasks; L = local;G = global; g = general factor).
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TACIT KNOWLEDGE 1239
departmental faculty. Their departments received a mean rating of 1.0.
One person who did not choose to indicate his or her departmental
affiliation was also included in the faculty group. The sample contained
36 full professors, 33associate professors, and 22assistant professors.
The psychology graduate student group consistedof 61 students from
the same departments that were sampled to obtain the faculty group.
This group contained 36 graduate students from departments highly
rated in terms of the scholarly quality of the faculty and 25 graduate
students from departments less highly rated in scholarly quality of the
faculty. The sampleconsisted of I5 first-year students, 15 second-year
students, 16third-year students, 6 fourth-year students, and 9 fifth-year
and beyond students. The undergraduate group contained 60 Yale un-
dergraduates whowere enrolled in an introductory psychology classand
received course credit for their participation. The undergraduates had
assorted majors, and many had not yet selected their major area of
study.
Materials
The tacit knowledge measure for academic psychology consisted of
12work-related situations, each of which wasassociatedwith from 9 to
11 response items.Of the 12work-related situations, 4were constructed
to sample each of the three contents oftacit knowledge (managingself,
tasks, and others). Half of the 12 work-related situations were con-
structed to sample tacit knowledgewith a local context; the other half,
tacit knowledgewith a global context. Thus each work-related situation
was constructed to sample one of three contents of tacit knowledge
(managingself, tasks,or others) in one of two contexts (local or global).
There were 37, 39, and 40 itemson the managing self, tasks,and others
subscales, respectively, and 59 and 57 on items the local and global con-
text subscales, respectively, for a total of 116 items. An example of a
work-related situation sampling tacit knowledge about managing self
with aglobal context follows.1
It is your second year as an assistant professor in a prestigious psy-
chology department. This past year you published two unrelated
empirical articles in established journals. Youdon't, however, be-
lieve there is yet a research area that can be identified as your own.
You believeyourself to be about asproductive asothers. The feed-
back about your first yearof teaching has been generally good.You
have yet to serve on a university committee. There is one graduate
student who has chosen to work with you. Youhave no external
source offunding, nor have you applied for funding.
Your goals are to become one of the top people in your area of
the field and to gettenure inyour department.Youbelieve yourself
to be a hard workerbut find that you do not have enough time to
get the important things done. You believe that you have not given
enough thought to the relative importance of the tasks you find
yourself engaged in and therefore are developing an agenda of
things to do in the next 2 months that will increase the chances of
success in your career.
The following is a list of things you are considering doing in the
next 2months. Youobviously cannot dothem all. Rate the impor-
tance of each by its priority as a means of reaching yourgoal:
Actual Ideal
1. Improve the qualityof your teaching.
2. Writeagrant proposal.. . .
9. Begin several short-term research projects, each
of which may lead to an empirical article.
Subjects read a given work-related situation and then rated each re-
sponse alternative on a 7-point scale by either its quality (1 = extremely
bad, 4 = neither good norbad, and 7 = extremely good} or its impor-
tance (1 = extremely unimportant, 4 = somewhat important, and 7 =
extremely important), depending on the particular response item. Sub-
jects rated both the actual and ideal quality or importance of each re-
sponse item. In making the actual rating, subjects were told, "The actual
rating asks you to rate how important or how good the response alterna-
tiveactually isgiventhe realitiesof the academicworld as you know it."
In making the ideal rating, subjects were told, "The ideal rating asks
you to rate how important or how good the response alternative should
be; in other words, howimportant it would be in one's ideal academic
world." The actual and ideal ratings served to measure pragmatic and
idealistic orientations, respectively.
Design
Independent variables were the (a) three contents (managing self,
tasks, and others), (b) two contexts (local and global), and (c) two orien-
tations (pragmatic and idealistic) of tacit knowledge.Content, context,
and orientation were "crossed"with one another. The dependent vari-
ables consistedof the setsof actual and ideal ratings assigned to response
items.
Criterion reference measures for the faculty group included (a)
whether a subject's department was rated high in scholarly quality of
departmental faculty (Jonesetal., 1982), (b)numberofcitations for the
years 1982 and 1983 reported in the Social Sciences Citation Index
(1982,1983), and (c) numberofpublications in the years 1982 and 1983
reported in Psychological Abstracts(1982, 1983). Criterion reference
measures for the graduate student group included several measures of
research productivity and the rated scholarly quality of departmental
faculty. This latter measure wasincluded as a criterion reference mea-
sure for psychology graduate students on the assumption that the qual-
ity of a department's faculty is related to the quality of the graduate
students the department attracts. A criterion reference measure for the
undergraduate group wasverbal reasoning ability as measured byper-
formance on the Verbal Reasoning subtest of the Differential Aptitude
Tests, Form T (Bennett, Seashore, &Wesman, 1974), which wasused
to investigate the relation between tacit knowledgeand verbal ability.
Procedure
The tacit knowledge measure wasmailed to membersof the faculty
and graduate student groups, and it was administered in a small-group
setting to members of the undergraduate group. The undergraduate
groupwasgiven, incounterbalanced order, the tacit knowledgemeasure
for academic psychologists as well as the tacit knowledge measure for
business executives that wasused in Experiment 2.
Results and Discussion
Basic Statistics
Return rates. The psychology faculty group returned90tacit
knowledgemeasures in time to be included in the study, yield-
inga return rateof 18%. The difference between the number of
respondents from highly rated departments (51) and from the
less highly rated departments (39) was not reliable, x2U, N =
90) = 1.34,p >.05.1randomly selected a sample of 40 nonre-
spondents to compare the rates of publication and citationof
respondents and nonrespondents. Faculty whoresponded were
comparable to faculty who did not in termsofnumberofpubli-
cations (Afs = 0.8 and 0.5 forrespondentsand nonrespondents,
respectively), £(106) = -1.63,p >.05, and number ofcitations
1Additional examples ofwork-related situations used inExperiments
1 and 2 are availablefrom theauthor.
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1240 RICHARD K. WAGNER
Table1
BasicStatistics or Reference Measures: Psychology Faculty,
GraduateStudents, and Undergraduates
Criterion reference
measure
No. citations (1982-
1983)
No.publications'
Rated scholarly
quality of
departmental
faculty
No. papers presented
%oftime spent in
Teaching
Research
Administrative
duties
Age
n
68
68
88
91
89
89
89
91
M
Faculty
44.9
0.8
2.7
2.1
26.7
31.7
19.4
44.9
Median
7
0
3.8
2
30
30
10
42
SD
79.6
1.2
1.5
2.2
15.1
18.6
18.1
11.1
Range
0-361
0̂ 1
0.4-4.4
0-10
0-60
0-80
0-97
29-77
Graduate students
No. publications
No. papers presented
Ratedscholarly
qualityof
departmental
faculty
No.years completed
%oftime spent in
Teaching
Research
Age
No.research projects
completed
61
61
61
61
60
60
61
61
1.1
1.1
2.8
2.8
10.7
37.8
27.2
4.2
0
0
3.9
3
7.5
38.5
26
4
1.7
1.6
1.6
1.5
14.3
24.2
4.2
3.0
0-10
0-6
0.4-4.4
1-6
0-75
0-99
22-39
0-15
Undergraduates
Verbal reasoning" 60 45.0 46 4.1 32-50
1This represents only theportion ofasubject's publications appearing
injournals covered byPsychological Abstracts.bThe theoretical rangeofthis variable was 0 to 50.
ject'spublications thatappeared in journals covered byPsycho-
logical Abstracts. The mean number of total publications for
the psychology faculty based on their self-report was3.1 for the
last academicyear.
Classification of materials by independent judges. Twoinde-
pendent judges, a first-yeargraduate student and a postdoctor-
ate student from the psychology department at Yale University,
were given definitions for each content (managing self, tasks,
and others) and context (local and global) of tacit knowledge
and then were asked to determine which content of tacit knowl-
edge and which context were being sampled by the 12 work-
related situations. For Judge A, agreement with intended con-
tentand context was 12 out of 12 forcontentof tacit knowledge
and 10 out of 12 forcontext. These levelsof agreement yielded
kappa values (Cohen, 1960),which is an estimate of the propor-
tion of nonchance agreement, of 1.00 (p < .01) and .75 (p <
.01), respectively. For Judge B, agreementwithintended content
and context was 10 out of 12 forcontentof tacit knowledgeand
12out of 12 forcontext, yieldingkappa valuesof .75(p < .01)
and 1.00(p < .01), respectively.
Characteristics of the raw ratings on the psychology tacit
knowledge measure. I found a moderate rangeon the raw rat-
ingsobtained fortheresponseitems. Noobvious ceilingor floor
effects were apparent.
One question of interest was whether differences in actual
and ideal ratings would diminish with increasing levelsof pro-
fessional advancement, owing either to a change of valuesover
the span of one's career or simply becoming more pragmatic
and less idealistic with age. Totaled across items, the actual-
ideal squared deviations averaged 339.4, 412.8, and 428.S for
the psychology faculty, graduate student, and undergraduate
student groups, respectively. This linear decreasing trend was
reliable, F(\, 207) = 4.67, p < .05, and a follow-up analysis
(Newman-Keuls) indicated that the means of the graduate and
undergraduatestudent groups differed from that of the faculty
group but not from each other. Thus, compared with the stu-
dent groups, there was more congruence between the psychol-
ogyfaculty's actual and ideal responses.
(Ms = 44.9 and 48.2 for respondents and nonrespondents, re-
spectively), «(90)=0.19,p >.05.Thepsychology graduate stu-
dent group returned 61 tacit knowledge measures in time to be
included in the study, yieldinga return rate of 31%. The differ-
ence betweenthe numberofgraduate student respondents from
highly rated departments (36) and from less highly rated de-
partments (25)was not reliable, x2
(l,AT- 61) = 1.64,p > .05.Sample characteristics: criterion reference measures. De-
scriptive statistics for measures of criterion performance are
presented inTable 1. The onlysurprising result inTable 1 is the
largemean numberofcitations for thepsychologyfaculty (M=
44.9). As is suggested by the much lower median number of
citations (median = 7), the distribution of citations washighly
skewed because the work of a small number of subjects was
widely cited. Consequently, I based subsequent analyses on a
logtransformation of the citations variable. At first glance, the
averagenumber ofpublications (.8) seemed low for a 2-yearpe-
riod. This figure, however, represents onlythe portion of asub-
Scope of Tacit Knowledge
Quantification of tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge was
quantified by comparing a subject's response item ratings to a
prototype derived from the mean response-item ratings of an
expert group. The expert group consisted of the 11 faculty
members from psychology departments that received scholarly
quality ratings equal to or greater than 4.2 on a 5-point scale
and who were highly competent in their profession.2
I calcu-
lated tacit knowledge scores bysummingthe squared deviations
of a subject's ratings from the prototype (i.e., the mean ratings
oftheexpert groupforeach item)for response itemsassociated
with each of the 12 work-related situations. This yielded 12
scores. I obtained subscale scores for the three contentsoftacit
2Analyses were carried out using several alternative sets of criteria
for selecting an expert group. The pattern of results was remarkably
consistent regardless of the specific set of criteria used.
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TACIT KNOWLEDGE 1241
knowledge (managingself, tasks, and others) and the two con-
texts (localandglobal)bysummingtheappropriate scores.Sep-
arate scoringwasdonefortheactualand theideal ratings, yield-
ingactual and ideal scale scores.
After conducting preliminary analyses, I made one minor
modification in the scoring procedures. It became apparent
that the tendency to use the entire scale when responding, as
subjects were instructed, rather than to useonly the intermedi-
ate ratings, was an individual difference that, although unre-
lated to criterion measures of performance, affected tacit
knowledge scores generated by the prototype method.3Conse-
quently, the ratings were transformed sothat thestandard devi-
ation of ratingsacross itemswasequal for everyone.Allsubse-
quent analyses are based on these transformed ratings, which
had astandard deviation of 1.5.
Expert-novice differences in tacit knowledge. If the tacit
knowledge instrument sampled tacit knowledge acquired as a
result of formal training and experience, there should be a de-
creasing trend in average scores across groups with increasing
levels of professional development. Note that scores are ex-
pected todecrease rather than increase with advancing level of
experience because these scores represent deviation from the
expertprototype. Thusthecloser thepattern of responsesto the
expert prototype, thelower the score.
The expected decrease was found in tacit knowledge scores
across groups with increasing amounts of trainingand experi-
ence in the field of academic psychology. For the actual ratings,
meantotal scoreswere215.9,243.8, and 311.6for thepsychol-
ogy faculty, graduate student, and undergraduate student
groups,respectively. This linear trend in the expected direction
was reliable, f[\, 196) = 51.1, p < .001. Follow-up analysis
(Newman-Keuls)showed that all meansdiffered reliably at the
.01 level. For the ideal ratings, mean total scores were 195.1,
205.7, and 294.7 for the psychologyfaculty, graduate student,
and undergraduate student groups, respectively. This linear
trend in the expected direction wasreliable, F(l, 196) = 53.4,
p < .001. The mean of the faculty group differed from that of
the undergraduate group at the .01 level, and the mean for the
graduate student groupdiffered from thatof theundergraduate
groupat the .01 level,but themeansfor thefaculty andgraduate
studentgroupswerenot reliably different.
Determining whether there were group differences for each
of the tacit knowledge subscales was accomplished by using
Timm's (1975) procedure. The effect of groupwas significant
beyond the .001 level for each content and context of tacit
knowledge, forboth the actual andideal ratings.
Tacit knowledge andcriterionperformance inacademicpsy-chology. I calculated internal consistency reliabilities (coeffi-
cient alphas) for the tacit knowledgescales separately for the
psychology faculty, graduate student, and undergraduate stu-
dent groups. Reliabilities for the total score ranged from .74 to
.90, with a median of .82. The reliabilities of the individual tacit
knowledge subscales were somewhat lower and more variable,
rangingfrom .48 to .90, witha median of .69.
Subscale scores were highly intercorrelated for both the ac-
tualandideal ratings.Thecorrelationsbetween local andglobal
context were .65(p < .001) for the actual ratings and .79 (p <
.001) for the ideal ratings. The median correlations among the
Table2
Correlation Coefficients Between Tacit Knowledge Scores and
CriterionReference Measures for Academic Psychology
Tacit knowledgescore
Criterion reference
measure
Rated scholarly quality
of departmental
faculty
No. citations
No. publications
%oftimespent in
Teaching
Research
Administrative duties
No. paperspresented
Age
n
Faculty
77
59
59
79
79
79
80
80
Actual
total
-.48***
-.44***
-.28*
.26*
-.41***
.19*
-.21*
.22
Ideal
total
-.42***
-.43***
-.03
.09
-.34**
.16
-.03
.06
Graduate students
Rated scholarly quality
of program faculty
No. publications
No.papers presented
%oftime spent in
Teaching
Research
No. research projects
completed
No.yearscompleted
61
59
80
79
79
61
61
-.46***
-.25*
-.12
.15
-.48***
-.24*
-.07
-.24*
-.16
-.11
.14
-.13
-.15
-.16
*p<.05.**p<.01.***p<.001.
managing self, tasks, and others contents of tacit knowledge
were .54 (p <.001) for the actual ratings and .67(p < .001) for
the ideal ratings.Finally, the correlation between total score for
the actual ratings and total score for the ideal ratings was .61
(p<.001).
Correlations between criterion measures and total tacit
knowledgescores for the actual and ideal ratings are presented
in Table 2 for the faculty and graduate student groups. Total
score, a measure of overall deviation from the expert prototype,
negatively correlated with the following criterion measures: (a)
rated scholarly quality of departmental faculty, (b) extent to
which a subject'swork iscited (often considered abetter mea-
sure of the quality of a person's work than sheer quantity of
3Individual differences in subjects' use of the entire scale when re-
sponding,a frequent finding in rating studies, would have affected scores
based on the prototype method because scoreswere based ondeviation
from a prototype, which would vary with the extent to which a subject
used the entire rating scale. This possibility was confirmed by the
strengthening of relations between tacit knowledge scores based on the
prototype methodwhen ratingswere transformed toholdconstant indi-
vidual differences in subjects' use of the entire scale when responding.
The transformation was done by standardizing the standard deviation
of ratings across response items for subjects to the common value of
1.5.
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1242 RICHARD K. WAGNER
Table3
CorrelationsAmongthe Six Kinds of Tacit Knowledgefor Psychology Faculty: Observed
(Below Diagonal) andDisattenuated or Reliability (Above Diagonal)
Tacit knowledge type 1 2 3
1. Self-local
2. Self-global
3. Tasks-local
4. Tasks-global
5. Others-local
6. Others-global
.20*
.04
.25*
.12
.21*
.38***
—.37***
.28**
.30**
.36***
.07
.59***
—.30**
.33***
.27**
.47***
.49***
.48***
—.34***
.37***
.23*
.53***
.53*"
.77***
—.39***
.99
.99
.99
.99
.99
—
" Thedisattenuated correlationwas greater than 1.00.
*p<.05. **p<.01. ***;>< .001.
publications), (c) number of publications, (d) percentage of
time spent in research, and (e) number of conference papers
presented. Total score waspositively correlated with percentage
of time spent in teaching and percentage of time spent in ad-
ministrative duties. Total score did not vary reliably as a linear
function of academic rank. For the actual ratings, means of
218.2, 224.1, and 204.3were obtained for the assistant profes-
sor, associate professor, and full professor groups, respectively,
fU, 74) = 0.59,p > .05. For the ideal ratings, means of 212.9,
191.4, and 191.5wereobtained for the assistant professor,asso-
ciate professor, and full professor groups, respectively, yielding
anF(\,14)= 1.14,/».05.
For psychology graduate students, total score was strongly
and negatively related to criterion measures such as (a) rated
scholarlyqualityof departmental faculty, (b) number of publi-
cations, (c)numberof conference papers presented, (d)percent-
age of time spent in research, and (e) numberof research proj-
ects completed. Correlations between total score and percent-
age of time spent in teaching and numberof years of graduate
study did not differ reliably from zero, but most were in the
appropriate direction.
For undergraduates, the correlation between verbal apti-
tude and total score on the tacit knowledge inventory was —.30
(p<.05).
Correlations with criterion measures for the individual sub-
tests, which are not reported because of their high degree of
intercorrelation, were similar in magnitude and pattern to those
obtained for total score.
Structure of Tacit Knowledge
Alternative models of the structure of tacit knowledge werefitted to the matrix ofcorrelations between scores representing
the six combinations of content and context. These corre-
lations, as well as the same correlations after disattenuating for
unreliability, are presented inTable3.
Two kindsof analyses—principal-components analysis and
confirmatory factor analysis—were carried out, and each sup-
ported the two-factor model that explains shared variance in
terms of asingle general factor.
The first principal component accounted for 40% of the total
variance, a figure typical of that found for traditional academic
aptitude tests. After the first principal component was ex-
tracted, the residual matrix was not significant, x2('4, N =
90) = 3.66. For the disattenuated correlations, the first princi-
pal component accounted for 72% of the total variance.
Confirmatory factor analysis can be used to test the hypothe-
sisthat agivenmodel did not generate the observed correlations
or covariances. Essentially, this is a test of the significance of
the discrepancy between predicted and observed correlations or
covariances, and support for the model is found if the test is
nonsignificant. This test was not significant, x2(9, N = 90) =
5.40,p> .05. Support forthe modelwasalso provided by a root
mean squared residual of only .04.
Hierarchical models with correlated group factors, that is,
models proposing group factorsinaddition to thegeneral factor,
yielded similarly good fits, but the parameter estimate for the
correlations between group factors equaled or exceeded one.
This indicates that all the variance accounted for by the group
factors wasaccounted for by a single general factor. Hierarchi-
cal models with orthogonal group factors did not fit the ob-
tained correlations. Thus the results support models that posit
a single general factor.
To extend the results to another domain, I conducted a sec-
ond experiment to replicate Experiment 1 in the field of busi-
ness management.
Experiment 2
Method
Subjects
Therewere threegroupsofsubjects, totaling 149people in all, whose
members differed in amountsof formal training and experience in the
fieldofbusiness managementThe business professional group consisted of 64 managers (63 men,
1 woman) from a nationwidesample of 31 companies. Thisgroup con-
tained 26 managers whose companies rank among the top 40 on the
Fortune 500 list, 33 managers whose companiesare not on the Fortune
500 list, and 5 individuals who chose not to reveal their company affili-
ation.
The business graduate student group consisted of 25 graduate stu-
dents (20 men, 5 women) from seven business schools. There were 9
first-year students, 14 second-year students, and 2 third-year students.
The group contained 15graduate studentswhoseschoolsare among the
highest ranked in thenation(TheCartter Report, 1977)and lOstudents
whoseschoolsare not among thehigher rankedbusiness schools.
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TACIT KNOWLEDGE 1243
The undergraduate group consisted of the same 60 Yale undergradu-
ates whoparticipated in Experiment 1.
Materials
Abusiness management tacit knowledge measure was constructed to
be theoretically isomorphic to the academic psychology tacit knowledge
measure and was identical in format. The content of the work-related
situations and response items, however, reflected the domain of business
management. There were 39, 40, and 41 items on the managing self,
tasks, and others subscales, respectively, and 60 and 60 on the local and
global orientation subscales, respectively, for a total of 120 items. An
example of a work-related situation that sampled managing others with
a global context follows:
You have been asked to take over another department. Youhavea
reputation not only for getting the most from your employees, but
for getting along with them aswell. Youwere asked to take onthis
new job because of rather serious personnel-related problems in
the new department. Morale in the new department is low. The
department is divided into those who are sorry the former head
wasasked to leave and those who are sorry the former head was not
asked to leave sooner. Performance ratings for the department have
been below expectations.
The problems have been around for some time, and you realize
that solving them won't happen overnight. You also believe this to
be a chance to show your superiors what you can do in a tough
situation, and you hope that by doing well you will improve your
opportunities foradvancement.
Rate the quality of the following actions you are considering tak-
ing in yournewrole:
Actual Ideal
1. Follow the advice of your new superior by an-
nouncing a major reorganization of the depart-
ment that includes getting rid of individuals
whom you believe to be "deadwood."
2. Give your superiors frequent progress reportson
thesituation.. . .
10. Be sure your superiors are awareof how bad the
situation really was so they will appreciate even
modest improvement.
Design
The design of this experiment was identical to that of Experiment
1 with the following exceptions. Criterion reference measures for the
business professional group included (a) salary, (b) years of manage-
ment experience, (c) level of company, which was an indication of
whether subject's company was among the top companies in the Fortune
500 list, (d) years of formal schooling beyond high school, and (e) age.
Criterion reference measures for the business graduate student groupincluded (a) years of business school completed, (b) whether a subject's
school was among the top-rated group of business schools, (c) years of
management experience, and (d) whether currently employed.
Procedure
The tacit knowledgemeasure was mailed to members of the business
professional and graduate student groups, and it was administered in a
small-group setting to undergraduate group members. Members of the
undergraduate group were administered, in counterbalanced order,
both the business and academic psychology tacit knowledge measures.
Table 4
BasicStatisticsfor Reference Measures: Business
Professionals, Graduate Students, and Undergraduates
Reference measure M Median SD Range
Professionals
Salary(n = 61)'Years management experience
(n = 62 )Level of company (« = 59)
b
Years of formal schooling
(post-high school) (n- 63)
Age(n = 61)
85-95
20.9
0.4
4.6
50.1
100+
22.5
0
4
52
20
8.9
0.5
2.1
9.4
20-100+
0-45
0-1
0-8
23-63
Graduate students (n = 25)
Level of school' 0.6 1Yearscompleted 1.7 2
Years management experience 2.6 2
Employed at present 0.5 0
Verbal reasoning
Undergraduates (n = 60)
45.0 46
0.5 0-1
0.6 1-3
2.6 0-9
0.5 0-1
4.1 32-50
*Numbersrepresent thousands ofdollars.
"Thisis an indication of whether subject's company is listed among the
top Fortune 500companies.cThis is an indication of whether subject's business school is among
those ranked highest in the nation by The Carrier Report (1977).
Results and Discussion
Basic Statistics
Return rates. The business professional group returned 64
tacit knowledge measures in time to be included in this study,
yielding areturn rateof 13%. The difference between the num-
ber of respondents from companieson theFortune500 list (26)
and those from companiesnot on the list (33) was not reliable,
X2(l, N = 59) = 0.61, p > .05. The business graduate student
group returned 25tacit knowledge measures in time to be in-
cluded in the study, yielding an identical return rate of 13%.
The difference betweenthe number of respondents from highly
ranked business schools(15) and those from unranked business
schools(10)was not reliable, x2( 1,N =25) =0.64, p > .05.
Sample characteristics: criterion reference measures. De-
scriptivestatistics for thecriterionmeasuresofperformance are
presentedforthebusinesssamples inTable4. The business pro-
fessional group wasboth highly experiencedand well compen-sated. The mediannumber of years of managementexperience
was22.5, and themediansalarywas$100,000or more. Slightly
fewer than half of the group wasemployed by companies high
on the Fortune 500 list. One difference between the business
graduate student group and the psychology graduate student
group inExperiment 1 wasthat the former group already had
some experience in their ultimate careers:The business gradu-
atestudentgroup had onaverage2 years of management experi-
ence, andabout halfwerecurrentlyemployed.
Classification of materials by independent judges For both
judges, agreement with intended content was 12 out of 12 and
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1244 RICHARD K. WAGNER
agreement with intended contextwas 10 out of 12.These levels
of agreement yielded kappa values of 1.00 (p < .01) and .66
(p < .01), respectively.
Characteristicsof the raw ratings on the business tacit knowl-
edge measure. Examinationof the raw ratings suggested no
obviousceilingor floor effects.
1 compared average actual-ideal squared deviations across
groups for evidence of a linear decreasing trend similar to that
found for academic psychologists. Average total squared devia-
tionswere 243.6,340.1, and416.7for thebusiness professional,
business graduate student, and undergraduate student groups,
respectively. This trend was reliable, F( 1,145) = 21.2,p<.001,
as weredifferences between each of the means. Thus increasing
professional advancement was related to congruence in tacit
knowledgeabout actualand ideal quality.
Scope of Tacit Knowledge
Quantification of tacit knowledge. The expert group, whose
average ratings constituted the prototype to which the ratings
of others were compared, consisted of 13 executives who (a)
were employedby companies on the Fortune 500 list, (b) had
titles higher in status and responsibility than vice-president
(e.g., executive vice-president, chairman, president), and (c) re-
ported annual salaries of$100,000ormore.
Expert-novice differences in tacit knowledge. Mean total
scores on the actual ratingswere 254.2,296.8, and 363.6 for the
business professional, business graduate student, and under-
graduate student groups, respectively. This linear trend in the
expected directionwas reliable, P(l, 132) = 31.9, p < .001. A
Newman-Keuls follow-up showedalldifferences among means
to be significant at the .01 level. Mean total scores for the ideal
ratings were 305.6 346.5, and 438.8 for the business profes-
sional, business graduate student, and undergraduate student
groups, respectively. This linear trend in the expected direction
was reliable, F(l, 132) = 38.6, p < .001, and all differences
among means were significant at the .01 level. Also, for both
actual and ideal ratings, groupdifferences significant at the .001
level were found for each content and context of tacit knowl-
edge.
Tacit knowledge and career performance in business man-
agement. I calculated internal consistency reliabilities (coeffi-
cient alphas) for the tacit knowledge scores separately for the
business professional, graduate student, and undergraduate stu-
dent groups. Reliabilities fortotal score ranged from .79 to .89,
with a median of .83. The reliabilities of the individual tacit
knowledge subscales were somewhat lowerand more variable,
rangingfrom .48 to .83, witha median of .67.
Subscale scores weremoderately to highly intercorrelatedfor
both the actual and ideal ratings, with the magnitude of the in-
tercorrelationscomparable across the actual and ideal ratings.
The correlations between local and global context were .73(p <
.001) for both the actual and ideal ratings. The median corre-
lations among the contents of managing self, tasks, and others
were .63(p< .001) for the actual ratingsand .61 (p <.001) for
the ideal ratings. Finally, the correlation betweentotal score for
theactual andideal ratingswas .71 (p < .001).
Correlations between criterion measures and total tacit
Table 5
CorrelationCoefficients Between Tacit Knowledge Scores and
CriterionReference Measures for BusinessManagement
Tacit knowledge score
Criterion referencemeasure
Actual
total
Ideal
total
Professionals
Salary (n= 48)
Years management experience
(n = 49)
Level of company (n =46)'
Yeais schooling (post-high
school) (n = 50)
Age(n = 50)
-.30*
-.05
-.32*
-.27*
-.12
.12
-.12
Graduate students (n= 25)
Level of school"
Yearscompleted
Years management experience
Employed atpresent
-.34*
.09
-.14
-.24
-.43*
.32
.10
-.11
• This is an indication of whether subject's company is listedamong the
top Fortune 500companies.b This is an indication of whether subject's business school is among
those ranked highest in the nation by TTieCartterReport (1977).
*p<.05.
knowledge scores for the actual and ideal ratings appear in Ta-
ble 5. For the business professional group, overall tacit knowl-
edge was related to salary and to years of management experi-
ence.
For the business graduate student group, overalltacit knowl-
edge wasrelated to level of school. The only puzzlingcorrela-
tion was that between years of schooling completed and total
score for the ideal scale.The correlation was expected to be neg-
ative, indicating that increasing years of schoolingwere associ-
ated withdecreasing deviation from the expert prototype. The
observed correlation waspositive and would have been signifi-
cant had two-tailed tests been used, but it was in the opposite
direction predicted for the one-tailed tests. What this result
means, ifanything, isunclear.
For the undergraduates, tacit knowledgescores were not re-
lated toverbal reasoning ability(r= -. 12, p >.05).
Thecorrelationsbetween criterion measures and theindivid-
ual subtest scores were similar in magnitude and pattern to
those obtained for total score.
Structureof Tacit Knowledge
Alternative models of the structure of tacit knowledgewere
fitted to the matrix of correlations between scores representing
the six combinations of content and context. These corre-
lations, aswell as the same correlations after disattenuating for
unreliability, are presented in Table 6.
As in Experiment1, the results supported the classofmodels
positing a single general factor and no group factors. The first
principal component accounted for 44% of the totalvariance,
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TACIT KNOWLEDGE 1245
Table6
CorrelationsAmongthe Six Kinds of Tad! Knowledge for BusinessProfessionals: Observed
(Below Diagonal) and Disattenuated for Reliability (Above Diagonal)
Tacit knowledge type 1 2 3 4
1. Self-local
2. Self-global
3. Tasks-local
4. Tasks-global
5. Others-local
6. Others-global
_
.38**
.14
.25*
.37"
.38**
.49***
—.24*
.17
.33**
.35"
.25*
.52"*
.52"*
.44"*
.21
.52***
.30*
.99'
—
.43***
.36"
.74*"
.55"*
.92*"
.75*"—
.33"
.99'
.90*"
.69***
.97"*
.83*"
—
• Thedisattenuatedcorrelation was greater than 1.00.
*/><.05.«p<.01.*"p<.001.
and the residual matrixwas not significant, x2('4, JV = 64) =
5.66 For the disattenuated correlations, the first principal com-
ponent accounted for 76% of the total variance.
Confirmatory factor analysis also supported a single general
factor. A model with a general factor and no group factors
yieldedagoodfit,x2(9,W=64) = 12.13,p>05.Therootmean
squared residual was .08. Hierarchical models with correlated
group factors yielded similarly good fits, but the parameter esti-
mates for the correlations between groupfactorsequaled or ex-
ceeded one. Hierarchical models with orthogonal group factors
did not fit the obtained correlations.
Between-domain generality of tacit knowledge. The under-
graduate group wasgivenboth the psychology and business tacit
knowledge measures in counterbalanced order. It was possible
to examine the generality of tacit knowledge, at least for the
undergraduate group, byexaminingcorrelations across the two
tacit knowledgemeasures. As a prerequisite to examining these
correlations, it was necessary to rule out order effects on the
covariance structure of the interrelations among question
scores. Finding order effects on the covariance structure of in-
terrelations among question scores would indicate that the na-
tureof whatwas being measured had changed upon administra-
tion of a second tacit knowledge instrument.(Althoughfinding
noorder effects onmean scoreswas not aprerequisite forexam-
ining the between-scales correlations, there were no order
effects on mean subscale scores.)
For the psychologytacit knowledge measure, aLISRELanaly-
sis of the fit to the data of a model that constrained the covari-
ances of the tacit knowledge measures to be equal across order
of administrationwas not significant, x2(21, N = 60) = 19.7,
p =.54. This suggestsno reliable order effect on the covariance
structure of the psychologytacit knowledge measure. For the
business tacit knowledgemeasure, analysis of the fit of the same
model also was not significant, x2(21, N =60) = 23.6 p = .32,
which,again, suggestsno reliable order effect on thecovariance
structure of the businesstacitknowledge measure.
Thegenerality oftacit knowledge was supported by the corre-
lations obtained between scores on the psychology and business
tacit knowledge measures: total score (r =.58, p <.001), local
orientation (r =.54,p < .001), global orientation (r =.50,p <
.001), managing self (r = .52, p < .001), managing tasks (r =
.47,p <.001), and managing others (r = .52,p < .001). Corre-
lations of this magnitude indicate that the two measures shared
approximately 25 to 35% of the total variance in tacit knowl-
edgescores.
General Discussion
The extent to which the results of the two present experi-
ments were similar to each other and to previous work was sur-
prising. The pattern of results wasnearly identical forExperi-
ments 1 and 2, which were carried out in different domains.
These results provide clear support for two previous findings
and partial support for a third.
First, inboth experiments, I found reliabledifferences intacit
knowledge across groups whose members differed in level of
professional advancement. The responses of academic psychol-
ogists were closer to the expert prototype than were those of
graduate students in psychology, whose responses were closer to
theexpert prototype than those ofthe undergraduates. Identical
findings were obtained for business professionals, business
graduatestudents,andundergraduates.
Second, in both experiments, within-group individual
differences in tacit knowledge were related to criterion mea-
sures of performance appropriate to each of the groups, with
some correlations of amagnitude (.3-.5) IVi to 2V 4 times that
ofcorrelationstypically found between performance on ability
tests and job performance. The resultant values of r2
(propor-
tion of variance accounted for) were2 to 5 times larger.
Third, in Experiment2, tacit knowledge was unrelated to
verbal aptitude. However, performance on the academic psy-
chology measure used in Experiment 1 was related to verbal
aptitude. Previously,no reliable relations were found forunder-
graduates between tacit knowledge and verbal aptitude as tradi-
tionallymeasured (Wagner &Steinberg, 1985). One difference
between these and previous experiments is that the present ex-
periments were more sensitive in detecting weak relations be-
tween tacit knowledge and verbal intelligence because of a larger
undergraduate sampleand more reliable tacit knowledge mea-
sures. Why there should be a relation with verbal aptitude for
the academic psychology measure and not the business measure
remains unclear. Thesedifferences cannot be due to differences
in subjects because I used the same group of undergraduates in
both experiments. An adequate determination of the true de-
gree of relation between tacit knowledge and verbal aptitude
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1246 RICHARD K. WAGNER
will requiregivinga tacit knowledge measureand an IQtest to
largegroupsof professionals asopposed to undergraduates.
Scope of Tacit Knowledge
The most important finding to emerge from the present ex-
periments concerns the breadth of tacit knowledge. Tacit
knowledge is not simply "careerism,"that is, knowing how to
promote one's career, nor is it simply formal knowledge about
such things as the names of one's tools. Whereas Hunter (1983)
has reported relations between formal knowledge and perfor-
mance for occupations such as medical technician, the present
resultsimply that such relations between knowledgeand perfor-
mance extend to the informal knowledge of people in manage-
rial and professionalcareers.
The between-group differences in tacit-knowledge across
groups whose members differed in level of professional ad-
vancement and the within-groupcorrelationswithcriterion ref-
erence measureswere similar for tacit knowledge useful in the
short-term accomplishment of a variety of tasks, as well as in
tacit knowledge useful inattaining one's long-range objectives.
These results extended across work-related situations that re-
quired skill at managing oneself, one's tasks, and others. Fur-
thermore, these differences encompassed judgments about the
ideal quality as well as the practicality of possible responses to
work-related situations.
An interestingfinding forboth experiments wasthat increas-
ing level of professional advancement was associated with in-
creasing congruence between judged ideal quality (ideal ratings)
andpracticality (actual ratings). There are a number of possible
explanations forthis result. Perhaps because what counts in ac-
ademic psychology and business is actual accomplishment,
whether in terms of publications and student evaluations of
one's teaching or in terms ofgross earnings for one's division,
people in these career pursuits come to weigh practicality
heavily in their judgments about the quality of possible re-
sponses to work-related situations. Alternatively, it may be that
people generally become less idealisticwith age or that their val-
ueschange over time regardless of the reward structure of their
occupations.
Structureof Tacit Knowledge
The resultsofbothexperiments support a model ofthe struc-
ture of tacit knowledge characterized by a substantial general
factor. Thus, for the present, individual differences in tacit
knowledge are best described in terms of a general ability or
fund of knowledge, as opposed to a collection of independent
abilities or funds of knowledge. The various kinds of tacit
knowledgeshouldbeviewedasfacets of ageneral abilityor fund
of knowledge as opposed to psychological factors in their own
right. In practical terms, people who arehighlyknowledgeable
about managing themselves tend to be quite knowledgeable
about managing others and managing their tasks. Such people
can be expected to be knowledgeable about both short-term and
long-term aspects of work-related situations and about ideal
quality aswell as practicality.
Inaddition to the outcomeoftesting alternative modelsofthe
structureof tacit knowledge,the generality oftacit knowledgeis
supported by (a) the intercorrelations(.5-.8) among the scales
constructed to measure distinct contents and contexts of tacit
knowledge; (b) thecorrelations(.7-.8)between performancefor
the actual and ideal ratings; (c) the correlation (.6) found for
members of the undergraduate group between performance on
the tacit knowledge measures for academic psychology and
business management; and (d) the highly similar patterns of
correlations with external criterion measures acrossdomains,
across actual and ideal responses, and across the contents and
contexts of tacit knowledge.
The fact that a generalized ability accounts for muchof the
variance in performance on academic-type tasksmight make a
similar finding for more practical tasksless surprising. Butnote
that the evidence for a general ability in the domain of social
intelligence has, at best, been mixed (see, e.g., Ford & Tisak,
1983;Keating, 1978;Sternberg&Smith, 1985;Walker&Foley,
1973). There may,however, beproblemswithsocial intelligence
measures because except for Hogan's (1969) Empathy Scale
and Ford and Tisak's(1983) behaviorally derived measure, so-
cial intelligence measures have been unrelated to the measures
they should be related to, including other social intelligence
measures. The present results are consistent with two recent
large-scale studies of social competence. In a cross-cultural
study involving hundredsofAnglo,Chicano, andMexican chil-
dren, Mercer,Gomez-Palacio, and Padilla (1986) found inter-
correlations among subscales of a measure of adaptive behavior
to exceed those of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Chil-
dren—Revised, which wasgiven to the same samples. More im-
portant, the correlation between performance on the adaptive
behavior scale and performance on the IQ test was not signifi-
cantly different from zero. Ford and Tisak (1983) reported evi-
dence for a social competence factor that was general to several
measures of social competence yet distinct from measures of
academic competence.
There are two obvious sources of a general factor for tacit
knowledge, which not surprisingly are two possible sources of
the general factor for psychometric aptitude tests. The general
factor may be a manifestation of something inside the head,
such as a general ability to acquire tacit knowledge. Alterna-
tively, the general factor mayreflect thenature oflearning expe-
riences: Experience in a given situation may inform one's un-
derstanding of the management ofself, others, and tasks. Thus
the fact that a person is relatively knowledgeable about each
kind oftacit knowledge might merely reflectgreaterexperience
insituations that provide generalknowledge.
A number of limitations of the present studies qualify the
conclusion that the structure of tacit knowledge is character-
ized by a general factor. First, the results are based on studies
conducted in twoprofessional domains. Movingbeyondprofes-
sional and managerial domains, or perhaps moving to manage-
rial and professional domains other than academic psychology
and businessmanagement, mayyield a different picture of the
structure of tacit knowledge. Second, the results are specific to
the particular measures used in the present studies. The results
might have been different had I measured other kinds of tacit
knowledge. Third, the generality may reflect something the
measureshave in common in addition to tacit knowledge,such
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TACIT KNOWLEDGE 1247
asresponse format. However, note that acommon responsefor-
mat has not been sufficient to yield a general factor in previous
studies ofsocial intelligence.
Obviously, it takes more than tacit knowledge to succeed in
an occupational setting. Motivation, academic ability, leader-
ship, chance, and other still undetermined elements undoubt-
edlyplay important roles.The importance of the present exper-
iments is to suggest that in addition to these other elements,
tacitknowledge playsa nontrivial role in work-related practical
judgment anddecision-making.
Inthe minds of laypersons and experts alike, intelligence in-
cludes more than the competencies required to succeed in the
circumscribed, although admittedly important, environment
of formal classroom settings (Sternberg, Conway, Ketron, &
Bernstein, 1981). Our understanding of intelligence will con-
tinue to be limited, at best, until the breadth of domains in
whichwe study intelligence becomes a closer approximationof
the breadth of domains in which intelligence is manifested.
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ReceivedMay 13, 1986
Revision received September 15, 1986
Accepted December 12, 1986 •
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