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CALL FOR PAPERS 

for a Special Issue of  

Journal of Global Mobility 

 

KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND ITS MANAGEMENT IN AN INTERNATIONAL WORK ENVIRONMENT: DRIVERS, CHALLENGES AND CONSEQUENCES 

 

Paper submission deadline: February 1^st, 2021 

 

Guest Editors:  

Marina Dabić, University of Zagreb & Nottingham Trent University, [log in to unmask] 

 

Miriam Moeller, University of Queensland, [log in to unmask] 

 

Andrea Caputo, University of Trento & University of Lincoln, [log in to unmask] 

 

Sebastian Stoermer, Technical University of Dresden, [log in to unmask] 

 

 

Contemporary organizations are becoming increasingly multicultural in their composition and global in their focus. In fact, globalization suggests that products may be conceived and designed in one country, produced in other countries, and marketed all over the world. Most importantly, people from different cultural backgrounds are now more interconnected due to the advancements in telecommunication, technology and free movement of labour. These individuals, or “knowledge agents” (Beaverstock, 2004; Bonache & Brewster, 2001; Bonache & Zárraga-Oberty, 2008) act as crucial repositories and conduits of knowledge with the potential to enhance organizational innovation and performance (Maley et al., 2020). 

 

The heterogeneity of personnel in global organizations and environments (Shaffer et al., 2012) implies that the emergence, sharing, application, and management of knowledge in the context of global work experiences may also be highly diverse. In this regard, it has been well-documented that managers, leaders, and employees must be able to facilitate a better cross-cultural understanding and possess intercultural-communication skills to harness knowledge benefits associated with international work environments and the recruitment of foreign talent (Bebenroth & Froese, 2020; Earley & Mosakowski, 2004; Latukha et al., 2019). Thus, while global work experiences can generate and perpetuate a plethora of knowledge, missed opportunities to exchange and manage such knowledge yields costs for organizations and hampers individual and organizational learning. 

In terms of knowledge creation and sharing, globally mobile personnel sit at the epicentre of this phenomenon often in the capacity of knowledge sender (Bonache & Brewster, 2001), knowledge receiver (Chang, et al., 2012; Hocking et al., 2007), or both. The value of any type of knowledge transferred within or across borders is, by default, dependent on the sender’s disseminative capacity and the receiver’s absorptive capacity (Burmeister et al., 2018), making it a challenging process to derive the greatest degree of value from knowledge. 

 

Thus far, pertinent research is at an early developmental stage and has only begun to uncover factors that have the power to influence knowledge creation and transfer at the individual level. This research includes but is not restricted to the context in which knowledge is transferred (Al Ariss & Shao, 2020; Fink et al., 2005). Scholars have further highlighted the crucial role of individuals’ ability, motivation, and career aspirations (Lazarova & Tarique, 2005). Likewise, cultural intelligence has been found to influence knowledge transfer activities in the context of expatriates (Stoermer, et al., forthcoming; Vlajčić, et al., 2019b). In addition, relationship building, communication practices, and constellations of power have been shown to be relevant to the knowledge sharing activities of expatriates and host country staff (Heizmann et al., 2018). Related research has also centred on the effects of language and varying logics, for instance holistic vs. linear, and the consequences for knowledge sharing in an intercultural working environment (e.g., Peltokorpi, 2006; Peltokorpi & Yamao, 2017). Another focus has been on the firm’s ability to absorb knowledge or reverse knowledge transfer from subsidiaries (Kong, et al., 2018; Vlajčić, et al., 2019a), while specific attention has also been paid to repatriate knowledge transfer boundary conditions and underlying mechanisms and the role of leadership (Amir et al., 2020; Bucher et al., 2020; Duvivier et al., 2019; Froese, et al., forthcoming).    

 

Another area of research has examined the role of knowledge characteristics. Scholars agree about the impact of knowledge characteristics on an organization’s information processing ability and effective knowledge transfer (Chou et al., 2007; Zhang & Zhang, 2014). Knowledge is part of the environment in which it is developed (Asmussen et al., 2013; Cui et al., 2006) and its characteristics have been investigated intensively. Most importantly, research has been careful to define knowledge in terms of its nature: formal versus informal (e.g., Amir et al., 2020; Asrar-ul-Haq & Anwar, 2016) and explicit versus tacit (e.g., Kostova, 1999; Nonaka & von Krogh, 2009). This has generated some insight into the rhythm, efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer.  

 

Despite these advancements, we argue that the literature on knowledge sharing and its management (e.g., Burmeister et al., 2015; Kiessling et al., 2009) within an international working environment has room to grow, particularly given relentless changes in global mobility patterns and the resulting demands placed on the global workforce. Hence, knowledge sharing behaviours and knowledge management in international work environments remain under-theorized and under-examined empirically due to the lack of accommodating for shifts in global mobility patterns in extant theories and frameworks. This recognition triggers our objective to uncover why, how, and when individuals in an international work environment create, share, and implement knowledge and how global knowledge management evolves amid diverse global workforce patterns. With that, we aim to improve our understanding of the breadth and depth of the processes, contents, as well as drivers and barriers of knowledge sharing and its management. 

 

This Special Issue seeks contributions unveiling knowledge about working in a global environment across a range of levels of analyses, temporal dynamics and processes, as well as contexts. We welcome multidisciplinary contributions that investigates the actors of global mobility, such as, and not limited to: Corporate and self-initiated expatriates; migrants; international entrepreneurs; international business travellers; low-status and high-status expatriates; short-term assignees, inpatriates, repatriates, and international commuters. In addition, we also embrace research that focuses on the host country national (HCN) perspective and respective dyadic approaches.  

 

This Special Issue will also focus on the loci of global mobility, welcoming submissions investigating multiple contexts where global mobility takes place including corporate and non-corporate communities, such as, diplomats, academics, international school teachers, international volunteers, military expatriates, missionaries, sports professionals, international artists and healthcare employees, among others. 

 

We encourage preliminary ideas about topics from prospective contributors and would be happy to discuss suggestions. For guidance, however, an illustrative list of topics includes: 

 

• What motivates globally mobile personnel to absorb, select and share knowledge? What may motivate globally mobile personnel to hide knowledge? 
• What is the role of personality factors or individual qualities in processes associated with the sharing, hiding, and application of knowledge in an international work environment? 
• What are organizations’ expectations of globally mobile personnel regarding engagement in knowledge sharing? Which knowledge management practices do organizations implement and which are successful? How are these communicated? 
• How might knowledge management expectations and practices change over time? Who determines these changes and across what timeframe?  
• What role do organizational climates and leadership styles play for the sharing, hiding, implementation of knowledge and the design of knowledge management practices? 
• What influence do temporal factors such as short-term or long-term stays have on the ability and motivation to share and manage knowledge?  
• How might language skills and/or the degree of host country language difficulty interfere in the knowledge management process?  
• What is the role of technology in knowledge management and how might its role interact with the abilities and motivations of globally mobile personnel?  
• How and when does knowledge sharing/hiding unfold in expatriate-HCN dyads? 
• What are the organizational, cultural and personal challenges to knowledge sharing and knowledge management and how may these interact?  

These and other aspects are pressing and important topics in global mobility research. For potential inclusion in this Special Issue, we are seeking original quantitative and qualitative empirical research, theory development, case studies, and critical literature reviews from multiple disciplines (e.g., sociology, psychology, occupational health, migration, legal, risk and safety management, etc.). We particularly seek multi-level approaches to accommodate individual, organizational, and societal perspectives. We also encourage authors to consider how they may take advantage of innovative data collection techniques and secondary data to shed new insights into issues of global mobility during calamities by, for instance, drawing on relevant media reports, social media and/or online forums.  

Submission Process and Timeline 

To be considered for the Special Issue, manuscripts must be submitted no later than February 1^st, 2021, 5:00pm Central European Time. Papers may be submitted prior to this deadline. Submitted papers will undergo a double-blind peer review process and will be evaluated by at least two reviewers and a Special Issue editor. The final acceptance is dependent on the review team’s judgment of the paper’s contribution on four key dimensions: 

1. Theoretical contribution: Does the paper offer novel and innovative insights or meaningfully extend existing theory in the field of global mobility? 
2. Empirical contribution: Does the paper offer novel findings and are the study design, data analysis, and results rigorous and appropriate in testing the hypotheses or research questions? 
3. Practical contribution: Does the paper contribute to the improved management of global mobility?  
4. Contribution to the special issue topic. 
   
   
   Authors should prepare their manuscripts for blind review according to the Journal of Global Mobility author guidelines, available at www.emeraldinsight.com/jgm.htm. Please remove any information that may potentially reveal the identity of the authors to the reviewers. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jgmob. For enquiries regarding the special issue please contact Marina Dabić at [log in to unmask]. 
   
    

Important dates 

Paper submission deadline: February 1, 2021 

Acceptance notification: September 2021 

Publication: December 2021 

 

References 

 

Al Ariss, A., & Shao, J.J. (2020). Knowledge transfer between self-initiated expatriates and their organizations: research propositions for managing SIEs. International Business Review, 29(1), 101634. 

Amir, S., Okimoto, T., & Moeller, M. (2020). Informal repatriate knowledge transfer: a qualitative analysis of Malaysian corporate executives. Journal of Global Mobility, 8(1), 107–140. 

Asrar-ul-Haq, M., & Anwar, S. (2016). A systematic review of knowledge management and  

knowledge sharing: Trends, issues, and challenges. Cogent Business and Management, 3(1), 1127744. 

Bucher, J., Burmeister, A., Osland, J.S., & Deller, J. (2020). The influence of empowering leadership on repatriate knowledge transfer: Understanding mechanisms and boundary conditions. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1–26. 

Beaverstock, J.V. (2004). Managing across borders: Knowledge management and expatriation  

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Heizmann, H., Fee, A., & Gray, S. J. (2018). Intercultural knowledge sharing between expatriates and host-country nationals in Vietnam: A practice-based study of communicative relations and power dynamics. Journal of International Management, 24(1), 16–32. 

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Kong, L., Ciabuschi, F., & Martín, O.M. (2018). Expatriate managers' relationships and reverse knowledge transfer within emerging market MNCs: The mediating role of subsidiary willingness. Journal of Business Research, 93, 216–229. 

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Latukha, M., Soyiri, J., Shagalkina, M., & Rysakova, L. (2019). From expatriation to global migration: The role of talent management practices in talent migration to Ghana. Journal of Global Mobility, 7(4), 325–345. 

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Peltokorpi, V. (2006). Knowledge sharing in a cross-cultural context: Nordic expatriates in Japan. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 4(2), 138–148. 

Peltokorpi, V., & Yamao, S. (2017). Corporate language proficiency in reverse knowledge transfer: A moderated mediation model of shared vision and communication frequency. Journal of World Business, 52(3), 404–416. 

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Stay safe and healthy.

Best regards,

Jan