Page 28 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

• Lack of trust, confidence and suspicion between actors.
Developments in the relationship between “knowledge providers” and
“receivers” in the international context, specifically in the Russian Federation (further referred to as Russia), show some slight improvements caused by the growing mutual understanding and habituation. The rationale of social space and pluralism in Russia has been developing gradually since the implosion of the previous Soviet Union (Plokhy, 2015). Moving towards a modern political system in the 1990’s, and exposed to a limited degree of pluralism by integration into the global economy, Russia, contributed by processes of differentiation and economical developments. In Russian society, amiddle-class has gradually grown in the context of a limited, organised and controlled social space (Cheskin and March, 2015). Based on the practical experience, gathered by the researcher of this study during the field operations in Russia, it can be argued that there are some actual points and actions, exploration of which is urgent for improvement of the existing situation. Specifically, it is important:
• To increase the educational level of “knowledge recipients” on management and business economics issues;
• To respect and understand the growing awareness of their own culture (national awareness and pride);
• To combine and adopt the national viewpoints with the application of (internationally accepted) management knowledge. Van Wijk, Jansen, and Lyles (2008) claim that even within one organisation the cultural differences, established and defended in separate departments, can seriously impede the transfer of knowledge. The results are considered to be much worse while dealing with differences between separate organisations (George, Oghojafor & Owoyemi, 2012; Giuliano & Gorenburg, 2012). Therefore, it is imperative that the consultants adapt their styles to the characteristics of the “receivers” in detail and take into consideration their level of experience in transmitting the knowledge (from transmitter to recipient) and the expected lessons to be learned from the process;
• To establish the organisation’s performance at a higher level as a result of KT;
• To improve the way in which a successful exchange of specific management knowledge and skills between consultants and client is measured. Efficiency criteria
that can be used among others are financial data, e.g. about sales and profits.
The more precise descriptions of the underlying reasons for the study, the managerial problems to be solved and the relevance of the research for scientific
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