Alexander Ardichvili

Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge‐sharing communities of practice

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study of motivation and barriers to employee participation in virtual knowledge‐sharing communities of practice at Caterpillar Inc., a Fortune 100, multinational corporation. The study indicates that, when employees view knowledge as a public good belonging to the whole organization, knowledge flows easily. However, even when individuals give the highest priority to the interests of the organization and of their community, they tend to shy away from contributing knowledge for a variety of reasons. Specifically, employees hesitate to contribute out of fear of criticism, or of misleading the community members (not being sure that their contributions are important, or completely accurate, or relevant to a specific discussion). To remove the identified barriers, there is a need for developing various types of trust, ranging from the knowledge‐based to the institution‐based trust. Future research directions and implications for KM practitioners are formulated.

Leadership styles and cultural values among managers and subordinates: a comparative study of four countries of the former Soviet Union, Germany, and the US

This cross-cultural study utilized the full range leadership framework developed by Bass and Avolio and Hofstedes model of culture, and compared leadership styles and cultural values of over 4,000 managerial and non-managerial employees in ten business organizations in Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Germany, and the US. Regarding socio-cultural dimensions, the study found that, compared to Germany and the US, the four former USSR countries differed primarily by much lower levels of Power Distance, higher levels of Masculinity and much longer planning horizons. The results on leadership indicate that two dimensions - Contingent Reward and Inspirational Motivation - produced the highest scores in all four countries of the former USSR. Two less efficient leadership styles, Laissez-faire and Management by Exception, have received significantly higher scores in the four former USSR countries, than in the US and Germany. Finally, the study suggests that cross-cultural human resource development issues cannot be described in terms of simplified dichotomies between the East and West. For constructs measured in this study, significant differences were found not only between the two groups of countries but also between individual countries within these groups.

Socio-Cultural Values, Internal Work Culture and Leadership Styles in Four Post-Communist Countries Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic

This survey-based study compared socio-cultural values, internal work culture assumptions, and leadership styles of 695 managers in nine manufacturing firms in Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. It has found differences between the four countries in all three areas. These differences are not across the board: there are clusters of similarities between some countries on some dimensions. Georgian managers emerged as more collectivistic than managers from the other three countries. Kazakhstan was the highest on paternalism and fatalism, and Russia the lowest on these two dimensions. The study shows that, despite similarities in economic systems and organizational and managerial structures, internal work culture assumptions vary from country to country. Recommendations for further research and practical suggestions for educators, trainers, and human resource executives are provided.

Leadership profiles of managers in post‐communist countries: a comparative study

This research sought to identify leadership styles of enterprise managers in four countries of the former USSR. The survey was based on the Bass and Avolio MLQ5x leadership styles instrument. Valid responses were received from 2,391 managers and employees at nine manufacturing enterprises located in Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. The results suggest that managers in these four countries used three well‐known leadership styles – transactional, transformational, and laissez‐faire. However, the laissez‐faire style was not prevalent. Overall, transactional contingent reward leadership was used more often than any other approaches. Charisma and individualized consideration received the lowest scores among the transformational leadership style dimensions. Tests of the relationship between leadership styles and managerial performance measures indicated that contingent reward and charisma had the strongest relationship with positive outcomes. Individual country leadership style profiles and implications for developing leadership training programs, and for the transfer of Western organization development approaches are discussed.

The Concept of Culture in International and Comparative HRD Research: Methodological Problems and Possible Solutions

International and comparative research is one of the fastest growing areas of scholarly inquiry in HRD. All international HRD studies, regardless of specific topics of investigation, sooner or later refer to culture. Therefore, the treatment of culture in international HRD research is a matter of central importance. The goal of this article is to illuminate some of the central issues in international and comparative HRD research by helping HRD researchers to better understand the current approaches to culture and by discussing the methodological problems arising from the current use of the concept of culture. Several alternative approaches to culture in international research are analyzed and criticized. The authors close the article by outlining directions that might overcome the limitations of current approaches, help us to increase the utility of the international and comparative HRD research, and improve our ability to incorporate the cultural influences in our investigations.

Work-Related Values of Managers and Subordinates in Manufacturing Companies in Germany, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, and the US

ABSTRACT This paper is based on a survey of over 4,000 respondents from ten manufacturing companies in two Western countries (the US and Germany), and four countries of the former Soviet Union (Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic). The study is using Hofstedes framework and instrumentation, and explores work-related culture dimensions of managers and employees in the ten companies. The study results point to within and between country variation in cultural dimensions, differences between managers and their subordinates, and the influence of demographic factors on culture. This is one of the first studies to address work-related cultural values in Georgia, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic, and one of few studies that allow inferences about the degree of variation within and between countries of the former Eastern Bloc and the countries of the West.

THE ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN TRANSITIONING FROM TECHNOLOGY·FOCUSED TO PEOPLE·CENTERED KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Communities of practice supported by on-line interactive technologies rapidly become one of the most efficient knowledge management tools in organizations. This chapter demonstrates that the Human Resource Development (HRD) function is uniquely positioned to implement the enabling systems for realizing the community-of-practice metaphor, which is grounded in the human capital theory and the resource-based theory of the firm. Examples of knowledge-sharing communities of practice demonstrate their central role in mobilizing the potential of the intellectual resources of the organization. The chapter includes a discussion of seven areas where HRD can play a central role in creating knowledge-sharing communities of practice. The chapter ends with a discussion of the HRD competencies and skills needed to fulfill this role.