Abstract
This paper reports on a study examining the effects of organisational culture — as exemplified in tacit knowledge — at the point where new organisational members are being selected. The study used an adaptation of a well tested tacit knowledge instrument administered to staff and students in two universities to examine both whether tacit knowledge with respect to specific “citizenship behaviours” is being exercised in the course of selection decisions to find a person who will “fit in”, and also, if so, whether the type of tacit knowledge appeared to be conditioned by the age of the universities or the seniority of the person making the decision. Results suggested that attempts do indeed take place to make a “person-organisation” fit on the basis of tacit knowledge of specific “citizenship” issues. This happens even when information about the selection criteria indicates that these issues are not included. It also appeared that while members of both organisations preferred “citizenship” behaviours over “academic” behaviours (i.e. behaviours aimed primarily at benefiting the organisation over those primarily aimed at furthering an employee’s academic career), members of the younger organisation preferred this more strongly. Contrary to much previous research, however, senior staff members of the organisations did not hold a more unified view of these issues than younger staff or students, and in fact, students were more of one mind over some issues. Also, the tacit views of members of the older organisation, while different, did not appear to be more strongly held.
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Barrett, M.A., Hort, L.K. (2000). The Use of Tacit Knowledge in Selection Decisions in Universities. In: Zanakis, S.H., Doukidis, G., Zopounidis, C. (eds) Decision Making: Recent Developments and Worldwide Applications. Applied Optimization, vol 45. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4919-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4919-9_5
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