Field reports that global companies routinely ask employees to create are too often ignored by coworkers and thus of little use. But there are ways to make these internal debriefings into what they were intended to be: highly effective tools for knowledge transfer. We studied a particularly successful program of the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation called SmartLessons. Started in 2005 in response to a push from managers in the field, the voluntary program teaches employees how to deliver information through human stories that people can connect with. It offers a simple guide for writing narratives to post online, as well as the services of an editor, who ensures that the articles and multimedia presentations posted on the SmartLessons site really are in story form.

Read More

Timely and effective knowledge transfer is increasingly important in today's technologically advanced global market. However, a myopic focus on efficiency has frequently rendered most organizational knowledge ineffective. By coupling technology with a formal system that captures informal stories in an engaging and entertaining way, actors within an organization may be more willing to listen to what geographically dispersed colleagues are doing, and may be more likely to ascribe value to that information. Focusing on the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, we conducted interviews with those sharing and using knowledge, and performed content analyses of 175 knowledge-sharing narratives. Our goal was to understand which aspects of narrative knowledge drive interest and value to users of that knowledge. We found that those seeking knowledge look to others in determining interest.

Read More

Strategic use of codified knowledge across borders can be a vital component for project‐based work. Analyzing 237 global consulting projects, we examine the performance effects of drawing upon different types of codified knowledge. We argue and find that using principle‐based forms of knowledge is likely to improve a project's customer responsiveness, whereas using template‐based knowledge increases a project's cost effectiveness. We also explore what drives project managers to select different forms of knowledge in the first place. Specifically, we find that manager experience drives knowledge principle use, whereas institutional distance drives knowledge template use. Taken together, our findings suggest that organizations need to carefully consider the performance implications of different types of codified knowledge that get used and understand what drives managers to use them.

Read More