Amy Lai Yu Wong

Career Development and Knowledge Appropriation: A Genealogical Critique:

In the fast-changing and globally competitive business environment, organizations’ efforts to appropriate knowledge from their workers will be increasingly resisted by those employees forced into more fragmented and uncertain careers. We interpret this contested scenario in terms of the apparently diametrically opposed ways in which knowledge is conceptualized. The organization sees knowledge as an asset which it seeks to appropriate through mechanisms designed to achieve employment flexibility. However, this process is not unidirectional, as we posit that the individual conceives of their knowledge as ‘career capital’ and, in building it up as a response to the uncertainties of reconstituted careers, pursues a strategy of employability. With reference to Foucault’s genealogical approach, we argue that the above contest not only reflects the shifting employment relationship and economic turbulence, but is in fact a social phenomenon rooted in the knowledge−power dialectic and one which sheds light on individuals’ efforts to free themselves from the effects of normalization, thus challenging organizational efforts to appropriate the knowledge inherent in careers.

Knowledge Exchange in Networked Organizations: Does Place Matter?

While many studies of knowledge exchange have been undertaken in private and service organizations, government and R&D enterprises, few have studied scientific inter-organizational collaborations. Furthermore, in the literature on international networks there has been a tendency to assume that knowledge exchange will be inevitably enhanced by global dispersion. Two linked dynamics deserving further study are the role of geographic proximity and the role of information and communication technologies in facilitating knowledge flow across international networks. Studies of intra- and inter-firm knowledge transfer, managerial work values and cultural norms all point to China as being a fascinating counterpoint for the way knowledge exchange might occur in Europe. So in this study of the ATLAS collaboration, a ‘big science’ global network of 3,500 physicists, we explore the perceptions of two subgroups: UK physicists working in Europe and Chinese scientists based in Beijing and HeFei. Findings from 24 interviews and non-participant observation reveal that face-to-face working at European Organization for Nuclear Research (Geneva) is not without its difficulties, but for a variety of sociocultural reasons, it is primarily the Chinese scientists who perceive themselves to be inhibited from full participation in effective knowledge exchange.

Global Information Technology Company, Ltd

This case presents a scenario that pertains to the effective management of human resources in a Chinese cultural context where guanxi and face are of considerable importance. It depicts actual situations in detail, but the names of the organization and participants have been disguised at the request of the interviewees. The scenarios deal with issues of managerial appointments, promotion, husband-wife team in an organization, threat of resignation, effective leadership and achievement of subordinate respect and performance. Human resource management in China often requires a different approach from that espoused in the Western literature that currently dominates orthodox management theory. With Chinas growing economic power and the numerous foreign joint ventures in China, examining the cultural differences provides important insights for understanding the ways in which the norms and informal rules in general, and face and harmony in particular, function in Chinese organizations.