Managers' experiential learning: An examination of the relationship between personality and tacit knowledge

This study investigated the relationships between personality traits, personality styles and tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge has been established as one of the products of learning from experience and was measured using the Tacit Knowledge Inventory for Managers (TKIM). Personality represents the psychological organization that coordinates experience and action with personality traits being the individual difference variables. These traits can be measured using the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Three hypotheses were examined that predicted: personality traits would be significantly correlated to an individual's level of tacit knowledge; threshold levels and/or upper limits of personality traits would be related to an individual's level of tacit knowledge; and, personality styles reflecting personality traits in combination would form a statistically significant regression model that accounted for observed variance in tacit knowledge. 93 professionals, managers and executives employed by pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical equipment companies in the northeast were studied. Individually, the personality traits of openness and agreeableness showed statistically significant relationships (r's = -.206 to + .319, p < .05) to several of the tacit knowledge scales. A significant difference was found between the mean tacit knowledge scores between individuals in the very high range in openness and agreeableness and those in the average range (p < .01). In combination, eight different personality types from seven different personality styles were significant predictor variables in the best-fit regression models that sought to account for the observed variance in tacit knowledge. A statistically significant regression model was obtained for each of the tacit knowledge scales with r-square values ranging from .103 to .314, and significance ranging from p < .01 to p < .0001. The findings suggest that individual personality differences play a role in the acquisition of tacit knowledge.