Knowledge transfer


Knowledge transfer refers to transferring an awareness of facts or practical skills from one entity to another. The particular profile of transfer processes activated for a given situation depends on the type of knowledge to be transferred, how it is represented and the processing demands of the transfer task. From this perspective, knowledge transfer in humans encompasses expertise from different disciplines: psychology, cognitive anthropology, anthropology of knowledge, communication studies and media ecology.

Overview

Because of the rapid development of strategies for promoting wider information use during the "information age", a family of terms – knowledge transfer, learning, transfer of learning, and knowledge sharing – are often used interchangeably or as synonyms. While the concepts of knowledge transfer, learning, and transfer of learning are defined in closely related terms, they are different notions. According to conventional usage in psychology, Transfer of Learning occurs in people when they apply already learned information, strategies, and skills to a new situation or context. Another concept of learning is attributed to all animals and even certain plants. Learning in humans starts before birth. According to cognitive psychology, learning begins from unaware and, even before birth during pregnancy, from non-perceptual processes of distinguishing sensory stimuli. In contrast to both above, knowledge transfer is a process in humans that requires intention from both sides: to share facts or skills from one side and acquire new knowledge from another.
The most significant difficulties exist with separating the terms knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing. According to Paulin and Suneson, their distinction is based on different representations of the relationship between knowledge and its context by different authors. Scientists who use the term knowledge transfer intend knowledge as an object without regard to the context; they amplify the enablers, suppress disabling conditions, and overcome obstacles, including the barriers, if they want to create good conditions for knowledge flow. Scholars who believe that knowledge is something that is constructed in a social context and which cannot be separated from the context use knowledge sharing and focus more on the development of "space" or "environment" to better fit individuals who need to develop personal knowledge with the help of those who have already developed it. Another approach suggests that knowledge sharing is a subset of knowledge transfer. Knowledge sharing refers to a linear process using a personalization strategy. Knowledge transfer is a non-linear process that may also proceed unidirectionally. According to Tangaraja and colleagues, the essential peculiarity of knowledge transfer is that it is distinguished by the strategy used. Indeed, the meaning of the word transfer implies the aim since the dictionary defines it as the process "to move someone or something from one place, vehicle, person, or group to another". In contrast, sharing refers to "having or using something simultaneously as someone else" without targeting.
The brief overview of related fields of knowledge introduces the main concepts that scholars consider when studying the current topic.
In cognitive anthropology, scholars tend to study patterns of shared knowledge. Cognitive anthropology is concerned with what people from different groups know and how that implicit knowledge changes how people perceive and relate to the world around them. This discipline attempts to understand the impact of culture on developing the cognitive schema – a culturally specific mental structure responsible for an active organization of past experiences, implying activation of the whole. Cognitive anthropologists strive to identify and systematize certain essential aspects of culture to understand how these peculiarities affect knowledge transfer. Because the cognitive schemas on the same issue may differ in different cultures, the particularities of knowledge transfer in different environments are essential.
In psychology, knowledge transfer is also based on the notion of cognitive schema and involves essential processes of Assimilation and Accommodation. Assimilation refers to an interpretation of new information within the framework of existing cognitive schema. It is the reuse of existing schemata to fit the new information. Accommodation refers to making minor changes to acquired knowledge to create a new schema for that knowledge to cope with things that do not fit existing schemas. In terms of psychology, knowledge transfer relates to the transformability of the transferred knowledge for assimilating by existing cognitive schemas and the translatability of the source practice for creating the new cognitive schema in the accommodation.
In communication studies, basic concepts like "sender", "receiver", "message", "channel", "signal", "encoding", "decoding", "noise", "feedback", and "context", appear in different models, which are classified in many ways. Models of communication adhere to the main properties of any model: Mapping ; Reduction ; Pragmatism. Communication studies recognize two main categories of models for describing knowledge transfer. The linear direction category presents a unidirectional process in which messages flow from the communicator to the audience. Conversely, the non-linear category is multi-directional: messages are sent back and forth between participants.
In organizational theory, knowledge transfer is the practical problem of transferring knowledge from one part of the organization to another. Like knowledge management, knowledge transfer seeks to organize, create, capture or distribute knowledge and ensure its availability for future users. It is considered to be more than just a communication problem. If it were merely that, then a memorandum, an e-mail or a meeting would accomplish the knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer is more complex because:
  • knowledge resides in organizational members, tools, tasks, and their subnetworks and
  • much knowledge in organizations is tacit or hard to articulate.
The subject has been taken up under the title of knowledge management since the 1990s. The term has also been applied to the transfer of knowledge at the international level.
In business, knowledge transfer now has become a common topic in mergers and acquisitions. It focuses on transferring technological platforms, market experience, managerial expertise, corporate culture, and other intellectual capital that can improve the companies' competence. Since technical skills and knowledge are very important assets for firms' competence in the global competition, unsuccessful knowledge transfer can have a negative impact on corporations and lead to expensive and time-consuming M&A not creating values to the firms.

History

Knowledge transfer between humans is a practice that likely dates back to the "Great Leap Forward" in behavioral modernity about 80,000 years ago, with the origin of speech initiating as far back as 100,000 BCE. Many scholars agree that modern human behavior can be characterized by abstract thinking, planning depth, symbolic behavior, music and dance, exploitation of large game, and blade technology, among others – "a set of traits that have come to be accepted as indicators of behavioral modernity"
The scientific study of knowledge transfer began in the first half of the twentieth century, focusing mainly on innovation adoption by individuals. In 1943, Ryan and Gross recognized the diffusion of innovation as an essential social process where interpersonal contact may play a pivotal role.
The period since 1945 has been characterized as the information age that increased motivation to develop strategies for promoting its wider use. After the Second War, three principal demands encouraged academic research on the topic: a desire for rapid technological change to stimulate more significant economic growth; a desire to enhance the transfer of technology emerging from defence and space-related research; and a desire to promote the adoption of innovations in health, education, and human services. Numerous research studies tested different strategies of knowledge distribution: print materials, films, videotapes, audiocassettes, consultation, organization development, technical assistance, network arrangements, training conferences and workshops, and participant observation.
In 1991, Backer proposed six crucial points for knowledge utilization:
  • Interpersonal contact: To get an innovation used in new settings, there needs to be direct, personal contact between the source and recipient;
  • Planning and conceptual foresight: a thought-out plan for how the innovation will be adopted in a new setting;
  • Outside consultation on the change process;
  • User-oriented transformation of information: what is known about an innovation needs to be translated to the recipient;
  • Individual and organizational championship: influential staff members and organizational leaders express enthusiasm for its adoption;
  • Potential user involvement: everyone who will have to live with the results of an organizational change needs to be involved in planning for innovation adoption.
During the first years after its reemergence, the notion of Knowledge transfer was usually treated in line with the notion of the knowledge-based theory of the firm. One of the most commonly cited authors here was Szulanski, who in numerous books and articles had developed the notion of knowledge transfer, especially regarding intra-firm knowledge. His early work clearly stated that knowledge is regarded as a firm's stock. Szulanski's doctoral dissertation proposed that knowledge transfer within a firm is inhibited by factors other than a lack of incentive. How well knowledge about best practices remains broadly accessible within a firm depends upon the nature of that knowledge, from where it comes, who gets it, and the organizational context within which any transfer occurs. "Stickiness" is a metaphor that comes from the difficulty of circulating fluid around an oil refinery. It is worth noting that his analysis does not apply to scientific theories, where a different set of dynamics and rewards apply.
Argote and Ingram defined knowledge transfer as "the process through which one unit is affected by the experience of another". They further pointed out the transfer of organizational knowledge can be observed through changes in the knowledge or performance of recipient units. Even though the benefits of knowledge transfer are well known, the effectiveness of the process varies considerably. The transfer of organizational knowledge, such as best practices, can be quite difficult to achieve.