| With the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation, many state government agencies may not prepare for the departure of those knowledge workers. Little research has addressed integrating knowledge management and succession planning in state government agencies. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore ways to extend succession planning to include capturing and sharing tacit knowledge in Mississippi’s government agencies. Theoretical support for the study was based on the work of Drucker, Wilson, Polanyi, Prusak, Wiig, Davenport, Newman and Conrad, and Nonaka and Takeuchi. The researcher sought to identify (a) human resource professionals’ awareness of the importance and dynamics of capturing tacit knowledge, (b) the best way to extend succession planning to capture and share tacit knowledge, and (c) the unique characteristics of state and local government agencies that either support or prevent capturing tacit knowledge through succession planning. Data collection involved a survey of human resource professionals representing state and local government agencies, and interviews with state government human resource directors. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes using NVivo 10. Survey results were analyzed using Survey Monkey software. Results showed a high level of awareness of the importance of tacit knowledge at all levels in government agencies. Capturing tacit knowledge through succession planning or an existing quality initiative was identified as a viable option. It was concluded that (a) there was a significant amount of awareness of tacit knowledge across state and local government agencies in Mississippi; (b) there were a variety of ways to extend succession planning so that it includes the capture and sharing of tacit knowledge, and (c) the unique characteristics of state and local governments that may prevent the capture of tacit knowledge through succession planning concerned succession planning not being a high priority in all agencies, and also pointed to the political nature of government, where elected officials appoint personnel to senior leadership positions. The researcher recommended state and local government leaders (a) begin addressing tacit knowledge in their agencies, (b) integrate their tacit knowledge initiatives with succession planning, and (c) extend formal quality initiatives to address tacit knowledge. |
