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Understanding Ethnicity and National Culture: A Theoretical Perspective on Knowledge Management in the Organization
Author(s) -
Khan Shazia Rehman,
Khan Iram A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
knowledge and process management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.341
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1099-1441
pISSN - 1092-4604
DOI - 10.1002/kpm.1440
Subject(s) - uncertainty avoidance , ethnic group , conceptualization , perspective (graphical) , cross cultural psychology , social psychology , hofstede's cultural dimensions theory , prejudice (legal term) , individualism , masculinity , psychology , sociology , collectivism , political science , gender studies , artificial intelligence , anthropology , law , computer science
The focus of this research is to relate ethnicity and its effect on national cultural values. The paper points out how the ethnic and economic reasons for conflict influence this interaction that creates barriers in the knowledge management processes in an organization. Theoretical model is predicated on two structural dimensions of ethnicity: ethnic boundary and ethnic competition, which are then related to the national cultural values of individualism, masculinity, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance. The cultural values of long‐term versus short‐term orientation and indulgence versus restraint are not included in the conceptualization as the first one is rarely used because of its inclination toward Confucian ethic, whereas the second is found to be more or less complementary to long‐term versus short‐term orientation. In the paper, prejudice and limited absorptive capacity are identified as the first‐level effects, which, consequentially, produce the barriers of knowledge hoarding and knowledge stickiness during the course of knowledge transference in an organization. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.