Esther Tippmann

The Two Faces of Knowledge Search: New Solutions and Capability Development

Searching for knowledge to solve non-routine problems allows middle managers not only to design new solutions but also to develop organizational capabilities. We focus on knowledge search to develop our understanding of how individuals engage with organizational knowledge in practice, how they acquire and use knowledge, and the implications for organizational knowledge development. Investigating middle managers’ knowledge search practices in response to non-routine events, we uncover four practices: isolating; overcoming knowledge distribution challenges; socializing; and mastering solution development. From these, we identify two aspects of knowledge search: not only can it produce new solutions but it can also have different effects in terms of developing organizational capabilities, either modifying existing routines or creating new ones. We argue that organizations with a knowledge use advantage, namely, an ability to mobilize accessible knowledge by organizing for knowledge circulation and a socialized search that deals with the organization’s challenges of knowledge distribution in order to master solution development – especially at mid-level – can pursue capability development. We discuss the implications of our findings for the literature on organizational knowledge and middle managers’ roles in organizational knowledge processes.

Utilizing Diverse Knowledge for Problem Solving in the MNC: A Network Mobilization Perspective

During problem solving, how do managers in multinational corporations (MNCs) utilize innovative tacit knowledge to develop solutions of high value to the firm? To shed light on this question, we co...

Subsidiaries as Learning Engines: Understanding Middle Managers’ Search for Knowledge as Micro-foundation

Knowledge refers to know-how, expertise or best practice, and — in contrast to information such as financial or operational data — knowledge equates to a skill, a routine or to external market data of strategic value (Gupta and Govindarajan 1991, 2000), and can be tacit or codified (Polanyi, 1966). Research on MNC knowledge flows has seen a great level of academic interest that has largely been driven by the recognition that knowledge is a critical factor in creating competitive success (Grant, 1996). Especially in the MNC, the knowledge-based advantage hinges on the capacity to effectively and efficiently reuse and integrate dispersed knowledge sources (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). Considering that MNC activities are becoming increasingly fine-sliced, creating structurally highly complex organizations (Buckley, 2009; Buckley and Ghauri, 2004) to manage the even greater distribution of knowledge for re-use and learning may pose additional challenges.

Middle Managers' Searching for Knowledge: the Repository-Interpersonal Dilemma

Drawing on the organizational memory and strategy for managing knowledge literatures to develop a theoretical framework, we empirically examined the organizational memory contexts – interpersonal and repository logic that set the broader conditions for middle managers’ knowledge searching. Contrary to most studies which examine knowledge storage processes, with the help of multiple case studies, we examined middle managers’ actual activities. Our findings reveal that in the interpersonal logic middle managers more actively engage in knowledge circulation and knowledge co-creation processes. In the repository logic instead, middle managers’ potential seemed to become confined because of cognitive inertia, leading to a tendency to search for ready-made solutions, and to use own experience in a siloed problem-solving effort that may have limited suitability to dealing with novel

Don’t Store it, Search for it: How Organizations can Encourage Middle Managers to Search for Distributed Knowledge

This qualitative study examined how middle managers, at the micro-level, search for distributed knowledge to resolve non-routine problems, and how the organizational context, at the macro-level, influences the knowledge search effectiveness. We find that middle managers proactively search organization wide knowledge resources, thus highlighting the significance of middle managers in integrating distributed knowledge. Further, our findings show the importance of the organization to provide supporting structures. In particular, we offer evidence that effective knowledge search does not rely on repositories but that organizational design aspects and a strategy for managing knowledge that emphasizes interaction opportunities, informality, and openness can promote the search for distributed knowledge.