The Effect of the Enhancement of Tacit and Explicit Knowledge in Knowledge Management on the Principal’s Digital Leadership and the Improvement of School Organization

Background/purpose. There are two types of knowledge in an organization, namely tacit and explicit knowledge. This research aims to test the effects of the enhancement techniques of both types of knowledge on the principal's digital leadership and school organization improvement, to find the relationship among the variables, and to find effective techniques to enhance the endogenous variables. Materials/methods. The explanatory research design was used in this study. The research sample was taken from 105 schools in Indonesia through cluster random sampling. Data collection techniques used questionnaires, interviews, and documentation. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling were used as the data analysis techniques. Results. The enhancement techniques of tacit and explicit knowledge had a direct impact on the digital leadership of principals and affected school organization improvement directly and indirectly. The digital leadership of principals had a strong influence on school organization improvement. Several tacit and explicit knowledge-enhancement techniques had a strong effect on school organization improvement, but several other techniques had a less significant effect. Conclusion. From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes effective tacit and explicit knowledge-sharing techniques in knowledge management and their impact on digital leadership and organizational improvement. From a managerial perspective, the research findings can be used by leaders to develop organizations. The present study expands the literature on knowledge management that has not been widely studied. It also finds the relationship among the variables in line with the development of information technology.