Page 92 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

e.g. at the individual and personal levels, People are main repositories of knowledge in organisations and act as learning agents. Individuals have the option to transfer and spread tacit and explicit knowledge as well and are available for adaption of their acclaimed knowledge to other connections. The outcome of transfer between the donor and the recipient is affected by the inter-personal interactions. Another level of inter- organisational KT can take place in strategic alliances and networks between organisations.
Figure 4: Inter-organisational Knowledge Transfer Model of Easterby-Smith et al. (2008)
Cultural differences can significantly hinder the KT within the organisation (Van Wijk et al., 2008). However, compared to the inter-organisational KT, intra- organisational KT, i.e. between units or departments of the same organisation, contributes a higher level of results to the ultimate outcome.
The role of knowledge transmitter is not being exclusively attached to Western consultants as well as knowledge recipients are not exclusively Russian recipient organisations (Michailova & Sidorova, 2011b). To be able to compete in free-market conditions, organisations in the transition economies in the 1990’s were under pressure to acquire and to obtain knowledge on managerial, technological and marketing capabilities. From the year 2000, a reduced flow of knowledge from Western actors to Russian organisations has been noticed by the author of this study, since a growing part
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