Successful Skill Transfer: Military Service Experience and Company Performance

In today‟s business life, employees from different sectors have the opportunity to work in
other industries and can have different positions through the organization. This can be considered
from the perspective of skill transfer (transfer of tacit knowledge). The success can be questioned in
terms of company performance. If this process can be managed well performance will be higher.
This research mainly aims to identify whether veterans with military service experience can
contribute to employee motivation, organizational motivation and organizational benefits. In order
to test the assumed associations, the research employs a survey study on the veterans who have
served for Bosnian army and are currently employees of Bosnian firms. The results provide that
military service experience is significantly influential on the motivations of employees and
organizations and on company performance. It can be suggested that the adaptation of external
knowledge (skill transfer), military service experience, into new organizational environment can be
enhanced by the help of knowledge management. This research is valuable in that it is among the
few studies in its respective field and in the region.