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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The use of knowledge in organizations is largely a discretionary behavior that can be encouraged but not demanded. As such, the firm can only attempt to provide the right conditions for employees to endorse the role of knowledge workers. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the organization of the firm affects knowledge management.Design/methodology/approach -This research proposes a new framework showing the prescriptive role of organizational characteristics onto knowledge management (KM) initiatives. Based on this framework, data were generated from nine semi-structured interviews conducted in the American, British and Japanese offices of a major Japanese pharmaceutical company, using a Boolean approach and qualitative content analysis.Findings -Organizational characteristics, specifically -structure, membership, relationship, and strategy affect KM, namely -knowledge acquisition, storage, diffusion, and application respectively.Research limitations/implications -Even though the departments of each local office under study were matched in terms of activity, the size of their own domestic market made comparisons sometimes challenging.Practical implications -This research suggests that practitioners can increase the yield of KM when integrated upstream into the elementary business processes rather than when left voluntary.Originality/value -This paper uncovers a possible link between the firm's organizational characteristics and KM, and the new practical framework can be useful to both scholars and practitioners.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to confirm quantitatively the previous finding that organizational characteristics influence knowledge management, and to assess whether the national culture of knowledge workers equally affects the management of knowledge. Design/methodology/approach-Based on data gathered from a questionnaire survey of a Japanese pharmaceutical company's 14 foreign subsidiaries, the effects of organizational characteristics and national culture on knowledge management were tested using multiple regression analysis. Findings-Although organizational characteristics and national culture were found to affect knowledge management, the data showed organizational characteristics to be a stronger prescriptive factor compared with national culture. Research limitations/implications-Because this research centered on a single company in the pharmaceutical industry, future research should attempt to confirm the validity of this framework in other industries. Practical implications-Changes in organizational characteristics, such as structure and relationship in particular, rather than adjustments in the composition of employees' nationalities, will have a stronger impact on the resulting knowledge management. Originality/value-This framework linking organizational characteristics and national culture to knowledge management had received a first justification using a case study approach with a qualitative comparative method and has now been confirmed with a quantitative approach. Among the predictors of knowledge management beyond the realm of deliberate measures within the firm, the data show that organizational characteristics exert a stronger influence than national culture.

Knowledge has been long cited as a strategic asset and a source of competitive advantage for organizations. However, the creation of knowledge is a complex process that is influenced by several factors beyond the typical practice of knowledge management (KM). In this research, we assess the effects of leadership, Ba (shared context in motion), organizational culture, organizational control, and work style on KM defined in terms of the SECI process of socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. On the basis of data gathered from a questionnaire survey of a Japanese pharmaceutical company and its subsidiaries in the United States, France, and China, we compare how the aforementioned organizational factors influence the processes of KM in these organizations. The results show that organizational factors affect KM practices differently in each of the targeted countries, and suggest that KM activities need to be tailored to the organizational idiosyncrasies of each local office, without betraying the global vision of the corporation.

Knowledge has been long cited as a strategic asset and a source of competitive advantage for organizations. However, the creation of knowledge is a complex process that is influenced by several factors beyond the typical practice of knowledge management. In this research, we assess the effects of leadership, Ba (shared context in motion), organizational culture, organizational control and work style on knowledge management defined in terms of the SECI process of socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. Based on data gathered from a questionnaire survey of a Japanese pharmaceutical company and its subsidiaries in the United States, France, and China, we compare how the aforementioned organizational factors influence the processes of knowledge management in these organizations. The results show that organizational factors affect knowledge management practices differently in each of the targeted countries, and suggest that knowledge management activities need to be tailored to the organizational idiosyncrasies of each local office, without betraying the global vision of the corporation.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of subjective well-being, often referred to as happiness, on the relationship between organizational virtuousness and job performance among Japanese employees. The concept of happiness has been receiving more attention over the past decade as research suggests that it may be a source of greater performance. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a questionnaire survey and conditional process analysis among Japanese managers and front-line workers within Japanese firms in Japan. Findings This paper found that positive subjective well-being partially mediates the relationship between general organizational virtuousness and self-management-related job performance, while it acts as a moderator in the relationship between general organizational virtuousness and leadership-related job performance. Practical implications These findings indicate that in the Japanese context, the firm’s investment in organizational virtuousness will increase one part of job performance, but that investment may not be sufficient in itself to positively affect leadership competency, unless it also pays attention to its employees’ positive subjective well-being. Originality/value Based on this growing realization of the importance of subjective well-being, or happiness, and the lack of academic research in Japan on its impact on organization, this paper investigates its effect on employees’ ability to manage their own tasks and lead others.

This paper examines the role of tacit and explicit knowledge in translating management innovation into firm performance in Japanese companies. While past research has been inconsistent on the role of management innovation on firm performance, this research considers how management innovation in organizations can promote tacit and/or explicit knowledge creation, and whether this leads to higher firm performance.This research uses a questionnaire survey of employees of Japanese firms, and applies conditional process analysis. There was no direct effect of management innovation onto firm performance, and that instead, both tacit and explicit knowledge fully mediated the relationship between management innovation and firm performance.While management innovation programs by themselves did not directly increase firm performance, the alignment of these programs with knowledge management initiatives enhanced performance. This highlights the need for management innovation that first considers the type of knowledge needed for enhanced performance. Previous research did not consider the role of knowledge as a means to translate management innovation into firm performance. This paper uncovers the mediating role of knowledge, potentially elucidating past inconclusive results.

PurposePast research has convincingly shown that higher employee subjective well-being, or happiness, is a source of higher job performance and retention. This paper therefore examines the relationships between organizational virtuousness, subjective well-being, and individual job performance among French and Japanese employees.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was conducted among Japanese and French managers and staff at Japanese and French domestic companies and structural equation modeling was employed to compare those associations.FindingsWe found that the Japanese and the French have different conceptualizations of organizational virtuousness, suggesting that firms must tailor their virtue-building activities based on the local culture. Subjective well-being is comparatively more important in Japan since it acts in complement to organizational virtuousness to positively affect job performance, while in France, only organizational virtuousness counts as a source of job performance.Research implicationsNational culture is revealed to be a new factor explaining differences in how employees consider organizational virtuousness and we provide evidence of positive associations of organizational virtuousness with positive subjective well-being and with job performance for both the Japanese and the French.Practical implicationsOrganizational virtuousness cannot be construed from a universalistic perspective where virtues are conceptualized on the same basis regardless of location or region, and firms should also consider their employees' individualist or collectivist inclination when trying to influence work outcomes.Originality/valueThese findings point to the role of national culture on the perception of organizational virtuousness and its effect on subjective well-being and job performance.