Being Trusted: How Team Generational Age Diversity Promotes and Undermines Trust in Cross-Boundary Relationships

We examine how demographic context influences the trust that boundary spanners experience in their dyadic relationships with clients. Because of the salience of age as a demographic characteristic as well as the increasing prevalence of age diversity and intergenerational conflict in the workplace, we focus on team age diversity as a demographic social context that affects trust between boundary spanners and their clients. Using social categorization theory and theories of social capital, we develop and test our contextual argument that a boundary spanner’s experience of being trusted is influenced by the social categorization processes that occur in dyadic interactions with a specific client and simultaneously, by similar social categorization processes that influence the degree to which the client team as a whole serves as a cooperative resource for demographically similar versus dissimilar boundary spanner-client dyads. Using a sample of 167 senior boundary spanners from the consulting industry, we find that generational diversity among client team members from a client organization undermines the perception of being trusted within homogeneous boundary spanner-client dyads while it enhances the perception of being trusted within heterogeneous dyads. The perception of being trusted is an important aspect of cross-boundary relationships because it influences coordination and the costs associated with coordination

Transferring Collective Knowledge: Collective and Fragmented Teaching and Learning in the Chinese Auto Industry

Collective knowledge, consisting of tacit group-embedded knowledge, is a key element of organizational capabilities. This study undertakes a multiple-case study of the transfer of collective knowledge, guided by a set of tentative constructs and propositions derived from organizational learning theory. By focusing on the group-embeddedness dimension of collective knowledge, we direct our attention to the source and recipient communities. We identify two sets of strategic choices concerning the transfer of collective knowledge: collective vs. fragmented teaching, and collective vs. fragmented learning. The empirical context of this study is international R&D capability transfer in the Chinese auto industry. From the case evidence, we find the expected benefits of collective teaching and collective learning, and also discover additional benefits of these two strategies, including the creation of a bridge network communication infrastructure. The study disclosed other conditions underlying the choice of strategies of transferring collective knowledge, including transfer effort and the level of group-embeddedness of the knowledge to be taught or re-embedded. The paper provides a group-level perspective in understanding organizational capabilities, as well as a set of refined constructs and propositions concerning strategic choices of transferring collective knowledge. The study also provides a rich description of the best practices and lessons learned in transferring organizational capabilities.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39804/3/wp420.pd

Beyond cross-functional teams: knowledge integration during organizational projects and the role of social capital

Large organizational projects must integrate the specific and dispersed knowledge of many individuals and groups to succeed. Thus, frequent exchanges between the project team and the organization's members are required. In this context, understanding of the knowledge integration process during cross-functional projects can be enhanced through the conceptual framework of social capital. A qualitative investigation of a French small firm conceptualizes knowledge integration as a three-phase model: collection, interpretation, and assimilation. The case shows that the integration process is cyclical with overlaps and inter-dependencies among the phases. This study leads to refinement of the social capital role in knowledge integration and reveals the dynamics of internal and external facets of social capital. That is, internal and external social capital play differentiated roles depending on the three phases of the knowledge integration process. Finally, the study reveals the co-evolution of social capital and knowledge integration as a resulting long-term effect

Transferring Collective Knowledge: Collective and Fragmented Teaching and Learning in the Chinese Auto Industry

Collective knowledge, consisting of tacit group-embedded knowledge, is a key element of organizational capabilities. This study undertakes a multiple-case study of the transfer of collective knowledge, guided by a set of tentative constructs and propositions derived from organizational learning theory. By focusing on the group-embeddedness dimension of collective knowledge, we direct our attention to the source and recipient communities. We identify two sets of strategic choices concerning the transfer of collective knowledge: collective vs. fragmented teaching, and collective vs. fragmented learning. The empirical context of this study is international R&D capability transfer in the Chinese auto industry. From the case evidence, we find the expected benefits of collective teaching and collective learning, and also discover additional benefits of these two strategies, including the creation of a bridge network communication infrastructure. The study disclosed other conditions underlying the choice of strategies of transferring collective knowledge, including transfer effort and the level of group-embeddedness of the knowledge to be taught or re-embedded. The paper provides a group-level perspective in understanding organizational capabilities, as well as a set of refined constructs and propositions concerning strategic choices of transferring collective knowledge. The study also provides a rich description of the best practices and lessons learned in transferring organizational capabilities.knowledge transfer, collective knowledge, organizational capabilities, R&D capabilities, organizational learning, network, China

The Impact and Role of Boundary Spanners and Boundary Objects in Global Project Networks

Globalizing is a key dynamic that is both impacting and reshaping the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries. Evolving with the twentieth century technological advances such as information technology, AEC firms are now capable of collaborating in a dispersed manner both on the projects and among participants. Because of the global outlook of firms, particularly to remain competitive and to reach new markets, project network participants, are becoming increasingly multi-cultural and multi-lingual. This participant diversity, both individually and organizationally, can lead to boundary formation. Though past research has explored the boundary spanning capabilities within organizations, little is known about the roles and impacts of boundary spanning, both as individuals and as objects, in global project networks. I investigate global project networks in order to assess the emergence, roles and impacts of various boundary spanning capabilities using both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. Data was collected from three different global project networks: 1) two project networks collaborating face-to-face, one was comprised of Indians and Americans, the other was identical but also contained an Indian national who had studied and worked in the U.S.; 2) an experimental setting comparing multi-cultural, cultural-boundary spanned and mono-cultural project networks; and 3) three days of design review meetings within a project network of U.S. and Indian engineers. Firstly, network analysis and grounded theory are applied in order to observe the emergence and role of cultural boundary spanners. In the second, quantitative statistical analysis is applied in order to observe the impact of cultural boundary spanners on performance. Finally in the third, network analysis and grounded theory is used to observe the role of boundary objects in negotiating knowledge. The findings have significant implications in improving the effectiveness of global project network collaborations

New Knowledge in Global Innovation Teams

In multinational enterprises (MNEs), global innovation teams are used increasingly to pool knowledge from different international subsidiaries. While it is fairly well described how subsidiaries fulfill product and know-how mandates, how parents and subsidiaries may/should interact and why team diversity is desirable from the corporate standpoint (i.e. to strengthen corporate culture), little is known about the possible innovation and technology knowledge-related benefits global innovation teams offer. In this paper, it is proposed that resources, customer knowledge, knowledge diffusion, and knowledge protection play a crucial role in a MNEs decision to deploy a global innovation team. Results from four case studies and two expert interviews show that there are indeed significant reasons for a global team deployment within innovation projects.Global Teams; Innovation; Knowledge Creation

The Role of Trust in Interorganizational Learning.

Accessing partner's tacit knowledge resources is one of the major advantages that strategic alliances offer to collaborating firms. Sharing of tacit knowledge, however, is risky for organizations, as it constitutes the basis of their competitive advantage. Additionally, due to its unarticulated character, tacit knowledge does not yield itself easily to transfer. This dissertation investigates the impact of trust on learning in an interorganizational context. It uses social learning theory to argue that the extent of trust at the strategic and operational level jointly affects the transfer of tacit knowledge between two organizations, albeit in different ways. Trust at the two levels is argued to be distinct in its sources and outcomes. Hypotheses linking types of trust to processes of tacit knowledge transfer in interorganizational alliances at both the strategic and the operational levels are formulated and tested.

How purchasing departments facilitate organizational ambidexterity

Companies must pursue both exploration and exploitation of supplier’s knowledge in increasingly competitive and complex production environments. This has been referred to as pursuing an ambidextrous supply strategy, extending the mobilisation of resources in pursuit of both aims beyond the borders of the lead manufacturer and into supplier organizations as well. Purchasing and supply management plays an increasingly central role in mobilizing and involving the suppliers in the pursuit of this agenda. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on organizational ambidexterity and operations management by exploring how purchasing departments contribute to the organizational pursuit of organizational ambidexterity. We explore practices followed by purchasing departments for mediating tensions between supply networks and organizational functions