۱- Introduction

۲- Literature review and conceptual framework

۳- Research setting and methodology

۴- Findings

۵- Discussion and conclusions

References

Abstract

We examine the communicative enabling practices and power dynamics of intercultural knowledge sharing relationships between Australian expatriates and host-country nationals from a practice-based theoretical perspective. Drawing on the results of an empirical field study, including interviews with 20 Australian expatriates and 23 Vietnamese host-country nationals, we identify three discrete phases of the relationships: (1) relationship building, (2) reciprocal learning and (3) knowledge co-construction. These stages provide the basis for a theoretical model and propositions that articulate specific communicative practices of both expatriates and host country nationals in developing and maintaining productive knowledge sharing relationships. Central to this is a dynamic process of power renegotiation between expatriates and host-country nationals that goes beyond prescriptive notions of ‘power distance’. Our findings extend current (expatriate-centred) research by showing how effective (two-way) KS relations are constituted through the discursive practices of both HCNs and expatriates in ways that are complementary, mutually reinforcing, and transformational.

Introduction

The international management (IM) literature has come to consider knowledge management as a key source of competitive advantage for global organisations (Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000; Ruisala and Smale, 2007). Expatriate assignments, in particular, have been identified as an important international knowledge transfer strategy (Hocking et al., 2004; Ruisala and Suutari, 2004). Expatriates can play a valuable role in developing the capacity of host-country national (HCN) staff while, at the same time, acquiring local HCN knowledge and feeding it back to other units through reverse knowledge transfer (Li and Scullion, 2010). However, in spite of the recurring emphasis on the strategic importance of knowledge transfer, surprisingly little is known about the development of productive knowledge sharing (KS) relationships between individual expatriates and HCNs (Bonache and Zárraga-Oberty, 2008). The question of ‘how knowledge integration unfolds on a micro-level and how it is constituted by the interaction between specific actors’ (Becker-Ritterspach, 2006, p. 360) remains poorly understood. This is particularly important given the cultural differences, language barriers and power differentials that shape HCN-expatriate interactions (Hong and Snell, 2008; Peltokorpi, 2006; Peltokorpi and Clausen, 2014). A number of authors have thus called for research that examines more closely the social processes and practices involved in developing productive KS relationships (Becker-Ritterspach, 2006; Harzing and Noorderhaven, 2009; Hong et al., 2009).