Tacit Knowledge of School Superintendents: Its Nature, Meaning, and Content

Abstract

This article maps the content and quantity of tacit knowledge of a sample of Ohio public school superintendents. Tacit knowledge of the superintendents was collected via interviews using a combination of critical incident and Sense-making methodologies to elicit examples of tacit knowledge acquired during their careers. The examples were culled and coded into antecedent and consequent behaviors, and hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using the 469 tacit knowledge items generated across the participants. A total of 21 categories describe the tacit knowledge of the entire superintendent group. Finally, differences in categories and amounts of tacit knowledge were found between “reputationally successful” and “typical” superintendents.