Search

Based on interviews and documentary analysis, we analyzed the mechanisms being adopted by the HQ of Huawei, a Chinese MNC, for controlling the outputs and processes of its foreign subsidiaries and social behaviours within them and how these controls were supported by corresponding strategies of legitimation. The controls comprise key performance indicators, standard operating procedures, divided subsidiary mandates, HQ-centric rotational expatriation, military-style induction, public oath-taking and self-criticism ceremonies, and training in and role-modelling of core values. The HQ provides comprehensive legitimation for each of these control mechanisms, drawing on five strategies of legitimation, which comprise espousals of organizational benefits, inducement, affirmation, moral exhortation, and narrativization. In many cases, the legitimizing statements have been provided by Mr. Ren, Huawei's founder and CEO, whose authority appears to have been important in conferring legitimacy to the HQ. The historical path of Huawei's development as an MNC has also been salient in conferring legitimacy to the HQ. Our findings suggest that interviewees regard the controls as legitimate, that the subsidiaries broadly comply with the controls, and that micro-political contestation is largely absent.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate Peter Senge’s ideas from the perspective of the spiritual ideal of harmony/He (和). Design/methodology/approach Following a literature review of the conceptualization of Senge’s fifth discipline and harmony, an appreciative case study of Alibaba is adopted to demonstrate the role of harmony in guiding the transformative application of the five disciplines of the learning organization. Findings In developing as a learning organization, Alibaba is portrayed as having embraced three levels of harmony: person-within-oneself, person-to-others and person-to-nature harmony. The authors identify three equivalencies between Senge’s disciplines and the traditional Chinese ideal of harmony. First, personal mastery and metal models correspond to developing person-within-oneself harmony. Second, team learning and shared vision entail developing person-to-others harmony. Third, systems thinking aligns with person-to-nature harmony. Practical implications The case study demonstrates various approaches that can be used to foster the development of person-within-oneself, person-to-others and person-to-nature harmony within an aspiring learning organization. Originality/value This paper shows how core values of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, distilled into the Chinese ideal of harmony, can encourage the cultivation of learning organizations.

Purpose This paper aims to identify the ethical foundations and principles underpinning the learning organization (LO) concept. Design/methodology/approach By interviewing one thought leader in the field, Professor Robin Snell, this paper traces how his early days in academia shaped the development of an ethics-driven research agenda on LO. Findings An ethical perspective advocates the importance of establishing a covenant or constitutional foundation of rights that would enable and empower organizational members at all levels to enact the processes of LOs, thus signifying the importance of employee development and a more sustainable approach for developing LO. Originality/value A personal reflection of Robin Snell on his own academic career development and research trajectory offers some insights into how an ethical perspective of LO evolved and flourished as a field of study.

Purpose This paper aims to offer a contextualized and multi-stakeholder perspective for creating a learning organization (LO) 2.0. Design/methodology/approach Based on a systematic review of the critiques of LO in the past three decades, this paper suggests some possible directions for the development of next-generation of LO (e.g. LO 2.0). Findings It is suggested that LO 2.0 should adopt a contextualized perspective by considering the social, organizational, cultural and industrial contexts to enhance the success of LO implementation and help fine-tune the universal LO model. Accordingly, LO 2.0 should adopt a multi-stakeholder perspective by incorporating multiple stakeholders during the process of design and implementation under the rationales of counteracting managerial dominance of low-power marginalized employees and mitigating the impacts of increased competition and technology advancement. Practical implications This paper provides some practical advice to business practitioners regarding how the practices of LO 2.0 can be adopted. Originality/value The study adds to the existing LO literature by further supporting and developing a contextualized and multi-stakeholder perspective to create the next generation of LO.

Dynamic capabilities are arguably of more value in the internationalization process, particularly of multinational companies (MNCs) that operate in highly dynamic international markets. Yet there is a scarcity of research on the nature of dynamic capabilities in such highly relevant contexts. This exploratory study presents observations of dynamic capabilities of MNCs operating in ten tightly-defined high-velocity industries of China that shed light on the nature of the concept. The findings suggest that (1) dynamic capabilities of MNCs in high-velocity markets are analytic, strategically planned high-frequency processes and routines, (2) they are highly complicated, and (3) they rely extensively on combined knowledge derived from global and local knowledge. They are likely influenced by diverse sources of environmental velocity and the degree of the MNC's ownership advantages. The complexity and sophistication observed have led us to propose a way to conceptualize dynamic capabilities of MNCs in high-velocity markets.

This conceptual paper analyses the role of collaborative-based HRM practices in supporting open innovation. There is already an extensive literature that investigates the impact of HRM practices on...

The concept of the learning organization (LO) has been subjected to strong criticisms over the past decade. However, excessive emphasis on the negativities will itself undermine the potential benefits that the LO concept promises to offer. By conducting a systematic review of the extant critiques of LO, this chapter aims to offer some suggestions for moving the idea forward. The authors argue that the community of learning organization scholars can reflect and learn from their past errors, thus returning with a more theoretically robust model in the next millennium. It is suggested to adopt a liminal and multi-stakeholder approach for developing a contextualized model of LO in the future.

Drawing on the concept of institutional logics, this study advances the coopetition research on tourism destinations. An inductive multi-case study approach is adopted to explore the evolution of coopetitive practices of four tour operators in Macau over the last decade. The findings indicate that actors in a tourism destination respond to the changes of institutional factors by adopting an institutional logic of coopetition, which include five key processes: exploiting, exploring, bridging, sharing and boundary spanning. This paper contributes to the nascent literature on coopetition in tourism destination studies by analyzing the dynamics of co-evolution between the multi-stakeholders’ changing logics of practice and the surrounding institutional environment. The implications of institutional logics and coopetition from a managerial perspective are also discussed.

The analysis of tourism supply chains has traditionally focused on the two-party relationships between vertical suppliers. However, since a full supply chain is composed of horizontal, vertical and diagonal suppliers, there is a gap in literature regarding the dynamics of how these triadic relationships operate within a tourism supply chain. Using a multiple case study design involving four tour operators in Macau, this paper explores the interplay of relationships among horizontal, vertical and diagonal suppliers. We capture the evolutionary dynamics of how coopetitive relationships are formed between horizontal suppliers, the subsequent impact on both vertical and diagonal suppliers, and the resulting overall changes in the structure of the tourism supply chain. This paper contributes to tourism supply chain literature through a coopetitive lens by analyzing the triadic relational links among horizontal, vertical and diagonal suppliers.

The dominant research agenda in the field of organizational learning continues to be driven by Western universalist assumptions. However, Asia provides a fertile setting for challenging such narrow orthodoxy in the field through studies that investigate the influence of local contexts. In this collection, four studies by Asia-based scholars address various facets of organizational learning among indigenous Asian firms. Drawing on diverse theoretical lenses and research methodologies to examine various organizational forms, their insights about the unique patterns and processes of learning among both small and emerging multinational companies from the Asia Pacific serve to rekindle debates about universalism/convergence versus contingency/divergence, and about emic (context-rich, inside-out) versus etic (context-free, outside-in) perspectives.

Made available in DSpace on 2019-10-03T17:31:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2019-10-04T16:20:35Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 S0103-65132019000100501.pdf: 1502054 bytes, checksum: 48ff2a95656d1e21886c1ef44f65a39f (MD5) AbstractPaper aims This research aims to evaluate factors that influence knowledge sharing in automotive production context in Brazil and China.Originality Despite the growing recognition of the factors that enable knowledge sharing in organizations, our understanding about the unique challenges encountered by the blue-collar workers in a production context is rather limited. Also, the paper raises issues and challenges involved for production organizations to engage in cross-national knowledge sharing, which remain relatively under-explored.Research method Drawing on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach, we conduct a comparative survey among the production managers in five automotive plants in China and Brazil. The AHP approach is based on Objective: Promote knowledge sharing among production workers; Criteria of knowledge conversion as Socialization, Externalization, Internalization; and Alternatives as Structure, Communication, Training, Incentive, Standard Operating Procedure, Problem Solving Methodology. The methodology focused on the 3 Brazilian and 2 Chinese automotive plants in our fieldwork.Main findings While many authors argue that socialization (dialogue) is the key form of worker knowledge sharing, our findings indicate that workers and managers perceive internalisation as more important in the automotive context. The significant differences between Chinese and Brazilian workers on the relative importance they attributed to knowledge sharing processes and corresponding enabling factors reinforce our understanding about the challenges of knowledge sharing across cultures and lends support to a more particularistic debate of knowledge management. While automotive workers in Brazil preferred to receive more training and better incentive schemes as essential knowledge sharing support mechanisms, Chinese workers valued more standardization through structure and standard operation procedures. The study reaffirms the role of knowledge sharing in continuous improvement and incremental innovation in shop floor operations.Implications for theory and practice In lieu of the gaps in the extant literature, this research aims to further identify and evaluate factors that influence cross-national knowledge sharing in automotive production contexts. The research addressed the gaps to promote supportive ways to provide employees interaction, best practices and lessons learning sharing. Universidade Estadual Paulista University of Macau University of Birmingham Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie Universidade Estadual Paulista

Whether those who lead us are practicing good or bad leadership, or anything in between, is a matter of ongoing controversy that can be viewed from multiple perspectives. Even if such controversy i...

We analyse political sensegiving and sensemaking by expatriates and host country employees through exportive, contestative and integrative stages of knowledge assimilation at two China-based subsidiaries of different Japanese MNCs. Comparative case study analysis indicated that efforts by expatriates and HQ-based experts to convey, routinize and standardize home country practices during the exportive and contestative stages, while involving traditional ‘one way’ knowledge transfer, can provide a foundation for a subsequent integrative stage, during which host country employees’ locally embedded knowledge is assimilated despite geopolitical asymmetry between home and host countries. Without this foundation, knowledge assimilation can remain ‘frozen’ at the contestative stage, with host country employees resisting importation of good practices from the HQ, and expatriates marginalizing host country employees’ contributions unless these are exceptionally compelling.

Based on qualitative interviews with members of a focal firm located in China and five of its local supplier firms, and on non-participant observations of focal firm-supplier transactions, we identify the cooperative and competitive routines that were managed and orchestrated by the focal firm and contributed to local knowledge development through Yin-Yang dynamics. Harnessed together in Yin-Yang dynamics, these two contradictory yet complementary and mutually transformative routines drove and supported core suppliers’ active contributions to new knowledge development while challenging them to remain close to the focal firm.

We set the scene by reviewing the theoretical state of play in organizational learning theory before homing in on Asia as both a challenge to established perspectives and as an exciting, multifaceted test-bed for diverse new approaches and interpretations.

We round out the contributions in the book by observing that context-sensitivity is important in Asia, that crossing knowledge boundaries presents ongoing challenges, and that universalist assumptions about organizational learning are unlikely to bear fruit. We recommend further research into the role and impact of institutional voids, organizational boundaries, and other organizational contexts on organizational learning processes and effectiveness.

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine how foreign subsidiaries of MNCs can acquire new local knowledge by focusing on two intra-organizational factors of learning mechanisms and formative organizational context. Design/methodology/approach – A mail survey was carried out with top managers among manufacturing subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) located in Hanoi, Vietnam and Guangdong province of China. In total 123 completed questionnaires from MNCs in Hanoi and China were received. Findings – The results suggested that training and mentoring and formative organizational context has positive association with knowledge acquisition. However, three interaction terms between learning mechanisms (experimentation, socialization, training and mentoring) with formative organizational context are significantly related to knowledge acquisition. Besides, the authors also found a positive and significant association between knowledge acquisition and subsidiary performance. Practical implications – Building a formative organizational context directly promotes knowledge acquisition and increases the effectiveness of more informal learning mechanisms. Besides, a learning mechanism may work differently in different contexts, and foreign managers need to be aware of when to apply what mechanisms. Originality/value – The paper argues that the alignment between organizational context and organizational learning mechanisms can help the foreign subsidiaries acquire new knowledge and improve subsequent performance. Local knowledge acquisition in MNCs should be conceived as a deliberate and managed act, requiring a careful selection of both formal and informal mechanisms supported by appropriate contextual conditions in foreign subsidiaries.

Our nested case study shows how a China-based focal subsidiary of a Japanese MNC used various power bases to orchestrate a co-opetitive and diverse supplier ecosystem, and to drive cumulative cycles of collaborative capability development involving successive phases of capability gap articulation, evolution and institutionalization. All phases of capability development required the crossing of cognitive boundaries, which was facilitated by mutual engagement with boundary objects, and by common possession of generic background knowledge disseminated by the focal firm. The capability evolution phase also required the crossing of social and governance boundaries, which was supported and legitimized by shared framing assumptions about mutual benefit and continuous development, while the capability institutionalization phase also required the crossing of governance boundaries. Although the focal firm was open to suggestions for mutual benefit, it exercised unilateral control over design decisions, thereby pressurizing its suppliers to engage in capability development to meet specifications that they found arduous. Supplier diversity was a resource, and co-opetition a driving force for the discovery of solutions to manufacturability problems during the capability evolution phase, such that failure to develop requisite capabilities was uncommon.

The main objective of this article is to explore the challenges for globalizing knowledge management theories. Adopting a practice-based view of knowledge and engaging critically with Nonaka’s SECI (socialization, externalization, combination and internalization) model, the hidden behavioral assumptions and cultural values and meanings embedded within the model are revealed so as to provide a thought experiment to explain the organizational and inter-cultural dynamics that may disrupt its translation in overseas contexts. It is argued that a successful implementation of Nonaka’s SECI model requires a ‘glocalized’ approach, which involves trade-offs between core underlying values and objectives during the process of local translation. This article contributes to current theories of knowledge management by revealing the underlying sources of cultural embeddedness and the implications for their global diffusion.

In this paper, we develop a model of four modes of knowledge flow, two involving knowledge acquisition and sharing, and two involving the localizing, embedding and investment of knowing in practice. We illustrate the model with data from an embedded case study involving a focal China-based subsidiary of a Japanese MNC, its headquarters, and two of its local suppliers. While power asymmetries appeared to have substantial impact on the terms upon which syntactic, semantic and pragmatic boundaries were crossed, successful knowledge transfer and boundary crossing appeared to depend on the willingness and ability of the various parties to engage in joint development of knowledge for mutual benefit.

Previous studies of communities of practice had often emphasized the ease with which members are able to participate in the collective learning process through joint practices within a particular community. However, nothing much has been done to reveal the difficulties and problems of learning between different communities due to different and sometimes conflicting identities and power inequalities. This article reports a failed experience of a tertiary institution to outsource its information technology (IT) department. By highlighting the social conflicts experienced by the in-house IT technicians in coordinating with the outsourcing staff, we argue that the received unitary, managerialist viewpoints of communities of practice somehow neglect the broader social context and micro-political factors of learning. This neglect underestimates the critical challenges of resolving the social tensions caused by multiple identities and embedded power differentials across different communities of practice.

The emergence of cross-functional virtual teams has presented both benefits and challenges to organisations. However, the unique characteristics of virtual teams make the sharing of knowledge among the geographically separated members difficult. This paper attempts to address this issue by looking at how the process of knowledge transfer cakes place in a cross-functional virtual team. A case study is conducted to interview various cross-functional virtual team members in one local subsidiary of a multinational telecommunication corporation as well as two of its hardware vendors. The findings indicate that four knowledge-sharing mechanisms are being employed, including shared understanding, learning climate, job rotation and coaching. Among them, shared understanding and learning climate are thought to be able to solve the challenge related to the unwillingness among the virtual team members to participate in the knowledge-sharing process, whereas coaching and job rotation are argued to be the solutions for the lack of collective competence required for performing the co-operative works. Some practical implications are also suggested for the effective management of cross-functional virtual teams.

In this chapter, we review prior studies on organizational learning in Asia, including the distinguished work of Ikujiro Nonaka, whose theory of knowledge creation has been crafted to represent essentially Japanese characteristics. Therein lies a problem, in that emic learning practices across other Asian countries are not even considered in Nonaka’s model. While many studies have been undertaken in Asia outside Japan, these have tended to focus on the importation of learning systems to such countries, without identifying and harnessing indigenous cultural and institutional resources. We shall begin this chapter with an overview of prior research into organizational learning in Asia ex-Japan. In the second part, we shall switch focus to Japanese owned organizations operating on Japanese soil. Thirdly,, we shall consider cultural and institutional features that apply more generally across Asia, and their implications for a pan-Asian theory of organizational learning. TAKING STOCK OF PAST RESEARCH Given the multitude of Asian countries and the diversity of Asian cultures and institutional contexts, it is not possible to distinguish substantive themes that cover each of these locations. Prior research into organizational learning in Asia (excluding Japanese organizations on home soil) has explored four broad issues, which we shall review below. The fi rst two of these are theory-oriented while the latter two focus more on practice (Easterby-Smith and Lyles, 2003). The issues are: knowledge management involving joint ventures in Asia; knowledge management involving wholly-owned subsidiaries in Asia; transfer of organizational learning practices to Asia; and measuring organizational learning in Asia. ◆

This paper draws on the social construction perspective and on social learning theory to examine the cross-cultural influences on organizational learning in MNCs. Social learning theory suggests that constructive engagement and member solidarity are key constituents of organization-based collective learning. Literature suggests, however, that cross-cultural differences in assumptions about social participation by organization members may impair organizational learning. The paper also reports a qualitative study, conducted at five Japanese-invested manufacturing companies in the Pearl River Delta, China. The research found that managers perceived Chinese frontline workers as lacking constructive engagement and member solidarity as compared with their Japanese counterparts, thus limiting organizational learning, and attributed these perceived differences to deep-seated cultural values. Attempts in two of the companies to ‘Japanize’ the workforces were reported to have had some impact, but appeared not to have substantially changed this picture. Urging caution regarding cross-cultural stereotyping and home country bias, we consider the implications for organizations with international manufacturing operations.

Qualitative interviews and observations were conducted to study the cross-border transfer of organizational learning systems to the subsidiaries of five Japanese manufacturing companies operating in South China. This paper develops a holistic model of the overall process, by integrating knowledge-oriented, routine-oriented, and social/contextual perspectives, each of which plays a necessary role in explaining essential aspects. One feature of the transfer of organizational learning systems entailed arranging local access to, and opportunity to replicate, various types of knowledge repository that contained corporate values as well as technical expertise. A second feature involved the development of collective learning routines through dynamic interplay with evolving, locally based, knowledge repositories. A third feature, in two companies, entailed the creation of enterprise contexts that reproduced the socialization and corporate culture maintenance rituals, and the open plan factory and office designs, that were hallmarks of the respective parent companies, and which appeared highly conducive to the transfer of collective learning routines to the local sites. Findings indicate that successful cross-border transfer of organizational learning systems entails the development and implementation of an overall heuristic design for cultivating collective learning routines through the engineering of enterprise contexts and the responsive management of knowledge repositories.