Cultural antecedents and performance consequences of open communication and knowledge transfer in multicultural process-innovation teams

Authors: Puck, Jonas; Rygl, David; Kittler, Markus

Source: Journal of Organisational Transformation & Social Change, Volume 3, Number 2, March 2007 , pp. 223-241(19)

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Abstract:

Processes in multinational corporations (MNCs) have to be configured with regard to the challenges of a permanently evolving environment. Process-innovation teams are considered to be powerful tools inside organizations to cope with this necessity. Their performance is of major importance for most MNCs. As a response to the increasing internationalization and globalization of markets, these teams show a growing culturally diverse composition. This article focuses on two major processes that are discussed to decide about a positive or a negative performance of a team: intra-team communication style and knowledge transfer. Explicitly, this article (1) tests for the influence of cultural diversity on intra-team communication and knowledge transfer, and (2) empirically examines the impact of the openness of intra-team communication and knowledge transfer on the performance of multicultural teams. A quantitative empirical survey among 84 team-members of 20 culturally diverse teams within a German sportswear company is used to test the relationships. Findings reveal that national cultural diversity has no significant impact on intra-team communication and knowledge transfer but both of them have significant influences on different measures of performance.

Keywords: knowledge management; communication; culture; team; performance

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/jots.3.2.223_1

Affiliations: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.

Publication date: 2007-03-01

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