Jennifer Hedlund

Identifying and Assessing Tacit Knowledge: Understanding the Practical Intelligence of Military Leaders

Abstract Tacit knowledge (TK) is knowledge drawn from everyday experience that helps individuals to solve real-world, practical problems. This study applied a method for identifying and assessing TK to the domain of military leadership in order to understand why some leaders are more successful than others. Interviews were conducted with Army officers at three levels of leadership in order to identify the type of practical, experience-based knowledge that is not necessarily part of formal training or doctrine. Subsequently, the Tacit Knowledge for Military Leaders (TKML) inventory, consisting of a series of leadership scenarios, was developed to assess the amount of knowledge leaders possess. Three versions of the TKML were administered to a total of 562 leaders at the platoon, company, and battalion levels. At all three levels, TKML scores correlated with ratings of leadership effectiveness from either peers or superiors, and the scores explained variance in leadership effectiveness beyond a test of general verbal ability and a test of TK for managers. These results indicate that domain-specific TK can explain individual differences in leadership effectiveness and suggest that leadership development initiatives should include efforts to facilitate the acquisition of TK.

Practical Intelligence, g, and Work Psychology

Intelligence has been the most widely studied and controversial factor used to explain individual differences in job performance. The controversy stems not so much from the validity of some kind of g-the evidence in support of some kind of g is impressive-but from the perspective that g is the best or even the only indicator of human abilities. Although g is a fairly consistent predictor of performance, it is far from the sole determinant of performance. There are many other factors that influence performance, such as personality and motivational constructs, that should be considered in addition to g. But perhaps more important, g represents a limited conceptualization of intelligence. This article focuses on the concept of practical intelligence, which reflects a broader conceptualization of the abilities needed for real-world success. We review research on tacit knowledge as an aspect of practical intelligence and consider the implications that practical intelligence has for work psychology.

Practical intelligence: Implications for human resources research

Intelligence has been the most widely studied and controversial factor used to explain individual differences in job performance. Measures of general cognitive ability are used in all types of personnel decisions, from selection to training assignments, and are well-established as valid predictors of performance. There is increasing evidence, however, that traditional intelligence tests do not fully capture the abilities associated with performance of real-world tasks. The focus of this work is on the role of practical intelligence as an augmented conceptualization of the abilities needed for real-world success. We review various approaches to understanding practical abilities and describe a program of research centered on the role of experience-based tacit knowledge as an aspect of practical intelligence. We consider the implications that practical intelligence has for applied and theoretical work in the area of human resource management.

The Exploration of Risk and Protective Score Differences Across Juvenile Offending Career Types and Their Effects on Recidivism

Despite an abundance of research on serious and violent juvenile offenders, few studies have linked juvenile offending career categories to juvenile court risk assessments and future offending. This study uses juvenile court referrals and assessment data to replicate earlier categorizations of serious, violent, and chronic offenders; to examine risk and protective score differences across these categories; and to assess whether risk and protective score constructs differentially predict adult criminality across these offender categories. Based on a sample of 9,859 juvenile offenders who aged out of Connecticut’s juvenile justice system between 2005 and 2009, we found that (1) our categorization of juvenile career types mirrored earlier work, (2) comparing risk and protective factors across and within juvenile career types identified distinct patterns, and (3) the juvenile risk and protective assessment subscales were not predictive of adult arrests for chronic offenders but were predictive for nonchronic juvenile career types.