Tacit knowledge as an indicator of academic performance

ABSTRACT

Despite years of debate over the usefulness of tacit knowledge, limited empirical research has quantitatively studied the contribution that tacit knowledge makes to university students’ performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which tacit knowledge correlates with other predictors and indicators of academic performance. Two studies were conducted in which a total of 448 university students participated. The results suggest that tacit knowledge has a small correlation with cumulative GPA, the percentage of academic requirements passed on the first attempt, achievement motivation, conscientiousness, extraversion, and gender. No statistically significant correlations were found with intellectual abilities, attention, openness to experience, agreeableness, field of study, or study programme/degree. The findings support claims about the importance of tacit knowledge in academic settings and its difference from cognitive abilities.

KEYWORDS:

• University students
• tacit knowledge
• academic performance
• measurement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This contribution was written within the framework of the GA ČR (Czech Science Foundation) grant-maintained project 407/12/0821, Creating a Czech Instrument for Measuring Academic Tacit Knowledge, and with the financial support of GA ČR.

Notes on contributors

Jana Matošková

Jana Matošková works as an assistant professor at the Department of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, in the Czech Republic. She is responsible for leading courses such as Human Resources Management I, Human Resources Management II, and Managerial Methods and Techniques. Moreover, she has also participated in courses for management in private sector. Her research interests are mainly focused on human resources management, managerial skills, career management, knowledge sharing, and tacit knowledge of managers.