TY - CHAP

T1 - What makes for successful repatriate knowledge transfer? Implications for repatriation and global leadership

AU - Osland, Joyce S.

AU - Szkudlarek, Betina

AU - Oddou, Gary

AU - Furuya, Norihito

AU - Deller, Jürgen

PY - 2020/10/19

Y1 - 2020/10/19

N2 - Knowledge transfer is an important global leader (GL) competency, given their role as knowledge brokers and capacity builders. However, knowledge transfer skills and the transfer process itself have received scant attention from both global mobility and leadership scholars. Similarly, multinationals have seldom systematically collected and utilized repatriate knowledge, despite the competitive advantage it represents in a global knowledge economy. To fill this gap, an exploratory qualitative study employing critical incidents and interviews with a multi-country sample of 47 German, Japanese, and US repatriates identified variables that facilitate knowledge transfer attempts to the work unit. Our findings corroborate the proposed variables in a conceptual model of the transfer process and articulate the transfer skills that help explain their ability to transfer. Most importantly, our findings introduce an interactive transfer model that explicates the microprocess of transfer in the repatriate–work unit relationship. We conclude with implications for global leadership research and HRM practice.

AB - Knowledge transfer is an important global leader (GL) competency, given their role as knowledge brokers and capacity builders. However, knowledge transfer skills and the transfer process itself have received scant attention from both global mobility and leadership scholars. Similarly, multinationals have seldom systematically collected and utilized repatriate knowledge, despite the competitive advantage it represents in a global knowledge economy. To fill this gap, an exploratory qualitative study employing critical incidents and interviews with a multi-country sample of 47 German, Japanese, and US repatriates identified variables that facilitate knowledge transfer attempts to the work unit. Our findings corroborate the proposed variables in a conceptual model of the transfer process and articulate the transfer skills that help explain their ability to transfer. Most importantly, our findings introduce an interactive transfer model that explicates the microprocess of transfer in the repatriate–work unit relationship. We conclude with implications for global leadership research and HRM practice.

KW - Business psychology

KW - Global leadership

KW - Knowledge transfer

KW - repatriate knowledge transfer

KW - Knowledge transfer skills

KW - HRM practices

KW - Global leadership development

U2 - 10.1108/S1535-120320200000013004

DO - 10.1108/S1535-120320200000013004

M3 - Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

SN - 978-1-83909-593-1

VL - 13

T3 - Advances in Global Leadership

SP - 105

EP - 128

BT - Advances in Global Leadership

A2 - Osland, Joyce

A2 - Szkudlarek, Betina

A2 - Mendenhall, Mark E.

A2 - Reiche, B. Sebastian

PB - Emerald Publishing Limited

CY - Bingley

ER -