From Tacit Knowledge to Organizational Wisdom: The Role of Awareness and Sharing in K‐12 Schools

ABSTRACT This study examines how tacit knowledge contributes to organizational wisdom in K–12 schools by focusing on two core micro‐level processes: educators' tacit knowledge awareness and tacit knowledge sharing. Although tacit knowledge plays a central role in professional judgment and everyday school decision‐making, the mechanisms through which experiential insights are transformed into wise organizational action remain insufficiently theorized and empirically tested in educational contexts. Addressing this gap, the study develops and tests a dual‐pathway model that conceptualizes tacit knowledge awareness and sharing as micro‐foundations of organizational wisdom. Organizational wisdom is conceptualized as a school's capacity to resolve complex educational problems and to translate knowledge into effective and efficient organizational action. Using a quantitative design, data were collected from educators working in Greek public K–12 schools and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that tacit knowledge awareness positively influences organizational wisdom both directly and indirectly through tacit knowledge sharing, with sharing acting as a key mediating mechanism. This suggests that while individual reflection on experience is important, the emergence of organizational wisdom depends largely on the social circulation of tacit insights within schools. The study contributes to the literature by empirically linking tacit knowledge processes to organizational wisdom in education and by clarifying how experiential knowledge becomes organizationally consequential. By foregrounding awareness and sharing as foundational mechanisms, the findings offer a process‐oriented perspective on how schools develop the capacity for context‐sensitive problem solving and effective collective action.