Ethnicity-based cultural differences in implicit managerial knowledge usage in three Australian organizations

Abstract

This study was interested in determining whether ethnicity-based cultural differences affected knowledge usage in today's multicultural organizations. Our empirical study uses a psychology-based approach to measure what we refer to as implicit managerial knowledge of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) workers within three Australian organizations. The research instrument captures responses to various ICT workplace scenarios in order to determine and compare the different ways in which people make use of the implicit knowledge they use to manage themselves and others. Using the culture-based literature to assist with interpretation of the data, we have identified a number of themes and their characteristics and brought these together to provide a comprehensive model for understanding cultural influences. This model can be used to better appreciate why and perhaps anticipate how an individual's implicit managerial knowledge will be used in responding to everyday workplace situations. Such an understanding will assist organizations to develop appropriate and effective knowledge management strategies.

Keywords:

• knowledge usage
• tacit knowledge
• ethnicity based culture
• workplace-based scenarios
• multiculturalism

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Debbie Richards

About the authors

Debbie Richards is currently an associate professor in the Computing Department at Macquarie University in Sydney. She has been interested in expertise and knowledge management from a theoretical and practical point of view since the early 1980s. This was initially inspired by her work in industry with experts from various commercial and retail domains and explored further in her Masters and Ph.D. theses, following completion of a Bachelor of Business. While much of Debbie's research is within the field of artificial intelligence, she is keen to develop systems that people are able to use and that make a difference to practice in industry. Achieving these goals requires understanding the factors, such as culture, which affect human decision making.

Peter Busch

Peter Busch is a lecturer in the Department of Computing at Macquarie University. Having studied geography at the University of Adelaide and then undertaken a Masters degree in Librarianship at Monash University, Peter undertook studies in computing at the University of Tasmania. He then became an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and thereafter the School of Information Systems at the University of Tasmania. Peter has completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of the late C.N.G. ‘Kit’ Dampney at Macquarie University, examining the knowledge management implications of tacit knowledge diffusion in the IT organizational domain. His areas of teaching include databases and information systems. His research area focuses on knowledge management.

Krishna Venkitachalam

Krishna Venkitachalam is a lecturer with the Department of Management and Marketing at La Trobe University. His research interests cover the domain of Knowledge management, Information systems management and Enterprise systems. He has also been carrying out research in the area of alignment between knowledge strategy and information technology strategy. He has a Ph.D. in Information Systems from The University of Melbourne, Australia, and has an MBA from the Brisbane Graduate School of Business, Queensland University of Technology, Australia.