Experiential learning and the acquisition of managerial tacit knowledge

By S. Armstrong, A. Mahmud. 2008

215 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Tacit knowledge is believed to be one factor that distinguishes successful managers from others. We sought to determine whether levels of accumulated managerial tacit knowledge (LAMTK) were associated with managers' dominant learning styles. Instruments used in the study, involving 356 Malaysian public sector employees, included Sternberg et al.'s (2000) Tacit Knowledge Inventory for Managers and a normative version of Kolb's (1999a) Learning Styles Inventory (LSI-Ill). Findings suggest that LAMTK is independent of the length of subjects' general work experience, but positively related to the amount of time spent working in a management context. Learning styles also had a significant relationship. Subjects who spent most of their time performing management functions and whose dominant learning styles were accommodating had significantly higher LAMTK than those with different learning styles. We also found support for the belief that learners with a strong preference for all four different abilities defined in Kolb's learning theory may be critical for effective experiential learning.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/541ce6f15cab72bae7aeffc7d34053c738d709c0

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

The roles of learning orientation and passion for work in the formation of entrepreneurial intention (2013, background): “Learning orientation reflects people’s propensity to update their current knowledge set continuously; it taps into people’s cognitive abilities (Armstrong and Mahmud, 2008; Kolb, 1984; VandeWalle et al., 1999).”
Connecting religion and work: Patterns and influences of work-faith integration (2011, background): “…further confirmation of organizational processes, such as discernment and leadership (Delbecq et al., 2004), virtue as a basis for organizational and management practice (Dyck and Wong, 2010), or spiritual disciplines and workplace mentors as tacit management learning (Armstrong and Mahmud, 2008).”
Knowledge transfer and cross-border acquisition performance: The impact of cultural distance and employee retention (2016, background): “The acquisition of tacit knowledge is affected by learning styles; for example, effective experiential learning is found to facilitate the knowledge acquisition process (Armstrong & Mahmud, 2008).”
When Do Global Leaders Learn Best to Develop Cultural Intelligence? An Investigation of the Moderating Role of Experiential Learning Style (2013, background): “This is not in line with Armstrong and Mahmud (2008)’s finding that an accommodative learning style is the most effective among the four learning styles in acquiring managerial tacit knowledge from managerial work experience.”