Page 150 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

“Logic is the kingdom of the unexpected. To think logically means to be continually amazed”.
Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938)
Chapter 4: Results: National and Organisational Cultures in Russia
4.1 Introduction
Studies, such as discussed by Hidalgo and Albors (2008) and Bakker, Cambré, Korlaar and Raab (2011) show that a serious application of KT processes is instrumental to facilitate the recipient’s organisational ability to implement SVC and the inescapable change of the inter-organisational culture into a more open, accepting and knowledge- devoted stance. Nevertheless, in many situations introduction of all types of changes in an organisation regularly or occasionally meets some degree of resistance, originated from the employees, organisational environment, various negative processes, management and communication style existing in the organisation etc. Many of the smaller (SME) organisations lack qualified employees, sufficient ACAP and do not have the experience and the internal knowledge available, to be successful in the implementation of KT processes. To encourage employees to share and disperse the knowledge acquired seems equal to an uphill battle and challenging in the majority of organisations.
4.2 The peculiarities of Russian organisations
The influence of the Russian national culture on the structure and condition of the organisations, operating in the new market environment in Russia has several aspects. There is a need for alternatives, in line with the Russian character and circumstances. As an example, there is a request for adjusted leadership styles, with adoption to the Russian culture but based on the premises that “people management” of excellent quality is prioritised, since human capital is “the” creative power and will become on demand in Russia, at length.
Based on the literature review it was assumed that several elements, specifically organisational environment, communication and management style, trust and openness between different groups, knowledge sharing practice are affected by the NC and, from their side, affect the KT and SVC. Therefore, first the “state of the art” and peculiarities of the Russian organisations were studied and analysed.
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