Gurus on loan : an ethnographic study of an intercultural knowledge-transfer program in a multinational company
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Transferring knowledge and practices across cultural boundaries has become increasingly important for today's multinational companies (MNCs). Yet, knowledge and practice transfer is often difficult to achieve, and management scholars insufficiently understand how individuals accomplish this transfer in their everyday work. Using ethnographic methods, I closely studied how some knowledge transfer rotations in an MNC unfolded over time. My analysis unearthed multiple types of challenges in transferring knowledge and practices—challenges that existing theories of knowledge and practice transfer cannot adequately explain. To account for my empirical findings, I propose a practice-based framework of knowledge transfer that integrates the perspectives of both the knowledge sender and the knowledge receiver. The framework identifies two necessary components of knowledge transfer: knowledge reenactment by the sender and knowledge reconstruction by the receiver. I highlight three practices that are important yet challenging for the parties involved: Entry point identification for the sender to reenact knowledge, active observation and meaning reconstruction for the receiver to accurately process the knowledge that is enacted by the sender. I conclude by discussing (a) some theoretical implications of the study for the literature on knowledge and practice transfer and the literature on international assignment, and (b) some practical implications for managing knowledge transfer within MNCs.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2014 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Xu, Jia |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Management Science and Engineering. |
| Primary advisor | Hinds, Pamela |
| Thesis advisor | Hinds, Pamela |
| Thesis advisor | Barley, Stephen R |
| Thesis advisor | Markus, Hazel Rose |
| Advisor | Barley, Stephen R |
| Advisor | Markus, Hazel Rose |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Jia (Carol) Xu. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Management Science and Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2014. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2014 by Jia Xu
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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