The fifth perspective: The knowledge management approach
Section: Holden (2002) proposes a different approach entirely
He proposes a knowledge management (KM) approach. KM states that “knowledge” is the most important asset in a firm. KM discusses how organizations can take advantage of employees' knowledge. Individuals have explicit and knowledge
The KM approach is interesting for several reasons:
• It is consistent with people's experience of culture. Everybody has a culture but very few people can accurately tell other people what that culture is.
• Cross‐cultural can be managed using a KM approach. Much of cross‐cultural management seems to be an attempt at describing the existing state of culture.
Holden (2002) supports his thesis by looking at several case studies: Novo Nordisk, Sulzer Infra, LEGO and Matsushita. The cases of Novo Nordisk and Sulzer Infra will be briefly discussed below.
- Novo Nordisk (NN) is a Danish company involved in biotechnology. It has a strong ethical and independent outlook and has been on the Fortune list of top 100 best‐run companies in the world. Having established that maintaining a global ethical standard was a strategic objective, NN's senior management put in places the resources and processes necessary to develop that global standard across cultures.
- Sulzer Infra (SI) is a Swiss group that specializes in providing all kinds of construction related consultancies, such as building maintenance, engineering or design. In order to survive, the strategic decision was made to forget “small” country projects and focus on large pan‐European contracts. This shift allowed SI to tap into a growing market which other. often using creative techniques. The location and time allowed for plenty of social networking.
They are, fundamentally, knowledge‐management facilitators, able to transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.