Jon Erland Lervik

Global transfer of management practices across nations and MNC subcultures.

Executive Overview Our case shows how a Norwegian Multinational Firm (Norwegian Multi) introduced a new performance management practice. The initial starting point was a “best practice” developed by a U.S. consultancy based on the benchmarking of large global firms. Norwegian Multi chose to remove from this best practice the elements that were seen as most provocative to dominant cultural values. Over time more and more subsidiaries reintroduced elements of the original practice. The management practice we examine—performance management (PM)—can be regarded as an extension of the traditional performance appraisal, linking individual performance to corporate strategy.1 Researchers separate calculative PM (focus on individual contributions and rewards) and collaborative PM (focus on creating a partnership culture between employer and employee, for example through competency development).2 In the United States, PM practices contain both calculative and collaborative elements, whereas in Scandinavia the calcu...

The power of spatial and temporal orderings in organizational learning

This article attends to the call for research on the often neglected spatial and temporal dynamics of organizational life. In particular, we examine the ways in which aspects of space and time facilitate or hinder learning and knowledge sharing in organizations. We draw on conceptual tools derived from work influenced largely by Henri Lefebvre to illustrate how a spatial–temporal lens throws new light on the problem of learning and knowledge sharing across organizational communities. We examine these dynamics in a qualitative study with four high-technology engineering companies in the energy conversion and automation and aerospace sectors. Building on a situated learning perspective, we argue that a spatial and temporal perspective contributes to our understanding of processes of identity construction and the power relations that influence access to forms of participation and learning across organizational communities.

Contrasting Perspectives on the Diffusion of Management Knowledge Performance Management in a Norwegian Multinational

This article presents an in-depth case study of the adoption patterns of performance management within a Norwegian multinational enterprise. The case allows the contrasting of a set of theoretical perspectives that provide different accounts of management knowledge diffusion. We review four perspectives named Conformity, Transfer, Translation and Local Modification, and find that each perspective can account for only parts of the observed adoption patterns in the multinational. The perspectives complement each other and together they provide more comprehensive ‘lenses’ for studying the diffusion of management knowledge. For future research, we suggest three strategies: to develop multi-perspectives typologies of diffusion outcomes, to develop multi-perspective process models, and to develop a meta-theory with propositions specifying conditions when different outcome types will be prevalent.

Temporal dynamics of situated learning in organizations

Situated learning theory posits that learning in organizations arises in the contexts and conditions of practical engagement, and time is an important dimension of activity and context of learning. However, time has primarily been conceptualized as an internal property of communities, buffered from social and organizational temporalities that shape rhythms of working and learning. This article examines how external temporalities affect situated learning through case studies of technical after-sales services. A situated learning perspective posits how new understandings are constructed from a broad assemblage of resources and relations. These resources and relationships are to a large extent governed by external temporalities that influence opportunities for learning through everyday work. We highlight temporal structures as an important mechanism guiding or obstructing the development of new understandings, and we conclude that a temporal perspective on situated learning holds important implications for practice and further research.

Implementing human resource development best practices: Replication or re-creation?

Abstract Firms increasingly introduce HRD ‘best practices’ developed somewhere else, but results often fall short of expectations. Much of existing theory fails to guide the implementation of HRD best practices because it does not recognize how introduced practices interact with existing practices in the firm. In this paper, we contrast the dominant perspective ‘Implementation as Replication’ with a perspective of ‘Implementation as Re-creation’. Through four stages of the implementation process, we identify and discuss how these contrasting perspectives yield different implications for how firms go about introducing HRD best practices. First, when firms take up a practice, is this a process of adoption or translation? Second, is it assumed that new knowledge can be implanted directly and lead to new behaviour, or is active experimentation a necessary precondition to gain new knowledge? Third, are deviations from the intended plan considered errors to be corrected or sources for learning? Fourth, are introduced best practices treated in isolation or as integral parts of the firms management system? We argue that implementation efforts guided by the re-creation perspective increase the prospects of HRD best practices succeeding as a useful tool in the receiving firm.

Processes of International Collaboration in Management Research: A Reflexive, Autoethnographic Approach

Scientists and academics increasingly work on collaborative projects and write papers in international research teams. This trend is driven by greater publishing demands in terms of the quality and breadth of data and analysis methods, which tend to be difficult to achieve without collaborating across institutional and national boundaries. Yet, our understanding of the collaborative processes in an academic setting and the potential tensions associated with them remains limited. We use a reflexive, autoethnographic approach to explicitly investigate our own experiences of international collaborative research. We offer systematic insights into the social and intellectual processes of academic collaborative writing, identifying six lessons and two key tensions that influence the success of international research teams. Our findings may benefit the formation of future coauthor teams, the preparation of research proposals, and the development of PhD curricula.

Standardised leadership tools in MNEs – critical reflections on the conditions for successful implementations

The article is inspired by a paradox: why do MNEs like standardised leadership tools when everybody argues that the world is becoming more complex? Based on this paradox the article raises the question: under what conditions will standardisation of a leadership tool be most useful to an MNE? Previous literature suggests that standardisation of a leadership tool may have control and learning benefits, and the article explores these effects looking at external and internal contexts of MNE subsidiaries. The paper is conceptual, but draws also on examples from a case study within a Norwegian MNE. The article argues that external complexity diminishes the usefulness of standardisation to an MNE. Internal fit of the tool with other tools will increase benefits of standardisation, the article argues, whereas managerial autonomy is associated with higher subsidiary learning effects, but lower synergy and control effects.

Transforming Subsidiary Institutional Distinctiveness into Non-location-Bound Capabilities

The differentiated MNE hinges on specialized subsidiaries that tap into and leverage localized capabilities in host countries. The rich literature on knowledge creating subsidiaries and subsidiary ...