■This article explores the tensions between different modes of action that a project leader uses throughout the course of a project. The study examines whether these different modes can be identified and, if so, whether there is a possibility for the project leader to change modes. This is referred to as ambidexterity. Ambidexterity is explored within two polar expeditions. Results are surprising. No conclusion can be reached about the advantage of one mode over the other. But what does stand out as a discriminating factor is the possibility of using all modes throughout the project.
■This article presents the results of a polar expedition by sea kayak in which the authors participated in 2007. It calls upon the approach of Bruno Latour to describe the forms of sociotechnical combinations and the controversies that arose during the course of the project. In addition, the article utilizes the experience of this unique project to draw lessons regarding project management in general: lessons on team makeup, knowledge management, and the relationship between preparation and actual implementation of a given project.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to study the obstacles to knowledge transfer between organizations belonging to different cultures by making use of the socialization–externalization – combination – internalization (SECI) model. The contribution made by this paper is in the use of the SECI model for studying this type of issue. Although it recognizes the epistemological duality between tacit and explicit knowledge, the traditional literature had not adopted this theoretical structure. The explanation for this is an excessively simplistic interpretation of the SECI model in its 1995 version together with a lack of knowledge about Nonaka’s more recent works – Nonaka et al. (2008).
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors use a comparative case study opposing a failure and a success, and rely on Latour controversies to account for the context and contradictions. One of the authors worked for five years as a mediator in these projects and adopted the reflective practitioner posture of Schön.
Findings
– Using the SECI model is relevant for studying this question. The results obtained converge with the literature and mark the SECI’s first stage – socialization – as an operation of major importance. The authors show that the failure in knowledge transfer is due to a deficit of socialization, as the lack of prolonged situations of co-presence of the actors, i.e. the lack of shared context, impedes knowledge conversion.
Research limitations/implications
– To go further, conditions of the socialization context must be better specified and developed. Second, cases in other areas than the health sector to observe the circulation of knowledge could be developed.
Practical implications
– The findings suggest ways for managers to fight against knowledge transfer barriers in multicultural contexts, relying on the socialization process.
Social implications
– Accounting for the problem of knowledge transfer in a multicultural context through the SECI model, which focusses on the interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge, opens a fruitful line of reflexion. It would organize trips for French managers in China with a strong intercultural dimension.
Originality/value
– Accounting for the problem of knowledge transfer in a multi culural context through the SECI model, which focusses on the interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge, opens a fruitful line of reflexion.
■The commitment of participants to a project especially under extreme conditions, such as a polar expedition, has a vital bearing on its end result. But how can one apprehend the very notion of commitment? First, we distinguish the actors' "declared" motivations from what actually mobilizes them in the situation. Second, we use notions of mobilization, norms, and sensibilities in order to understand this phenomenon. They throw a light on the participants' behavior throughout the polar expedition and the project's progress. Our conclusions lead to a reconsideration of how to recruit for project teams, highlighting as they do, on the one hand, the importance of commitment not just in terms on intensity but also of meaning, and on the other, the difficulty of using this criterion for recruiting insofar as this commitment may be separate from the motivation expressed.
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