Transferring Organizational Learning Systems to Japanese Subsidiaries in China*

Abstract

Qualitative interviews and observations were conducted to study the cross-border transfer of organizational learning systems to the subsidiaries of five Japanese manufacturing companies operating in South China. This paper develops a holistic model of the overall process, by integrating knowledge-oriented, routine-oriented, and social/contextual perspectives, each of which plays a necessary role in explaining essential aspects. One feature of the transfer of organizational learning systems entailed arranging local access to, and opportunity to replicate, various types of knowledge repository that contained corporate values as well as technical expertise. A second feature involved the development of collective learning routines through dynamic interplay with evolving, locally based, knowledge repositories. A third feature, in two companies, entailed the creation of enterprise contexts that reproduced the socialization and corporate culture maintenance rituals, and the open plan factory and office designs, that were hallmarks of the respective parent companies, and which appeared highly conducive to the transfer of collective learning routines to the local sites. Findings indicate that successful cross-border transfer of organizational learning systems entails the development and implementation of an overall heuristic design for cultivating collective learning routines through the engineering of enterprise contexts and the responsive management of knowledge repositories.

Bringing context and structure back into situated learning

“…Brown and Duguid (2001) acknowledge that a firm's knowledge base partially draws on broader institutional structures, but exactly how these institutional structures affect situated learning and knowledge processes, and how they interact with formal organizational structures (Nicolini, Mengis and Swan, forthcoming;Roberts, 2006), has received little attention. Exceptions aside (e.g., Gherardi and Perrotta, 2011;Hong et al, 2006), the influence of broader institutional effects on situated learning still seems largely unrecognized and underplayed. As a result, we have little understanding of how social learning takes place in situ, such as how the epistemic boundaries between different communities are conditioned by wider formal structures, and the implications of this for situated learning processes.…”

“…Practice-based studies increasingly recognize that learning may be conditioned by both organizational and institutional structures (Brown and Duguid, 2001;Gherardi and Perrotta, 2011;Hong et al, 2006;Thompson, 2005). Nonetheless, the interplay between these structures has neither been systematically theorized nor empirically explored.…”

Agency-Based View of Learning within the Multinational Corporation

“…Such socialization aids in orienting actors' behaviour towards collective learning (Hong et al, 2006). German Chem's emphasis on expatriate management is evident in the number of HQ personnel assigned to various subsidiaries.…”

International transfer of Kaizen : Japanese manufacturers in the Netherlands

“…In recent decades, Japanese manufacturers operating in global markets have faced increasing pressures to internationalise their manufacturing. Many companies transfer the kaizen philosophy, methods and tools to their overseas subsidiaries (Abo, 1994;Aoki, 2008;Kumon & Abo, 2004), for example to North American countries (Abo, 1994;Kenney & Florida, 1993), the UK (Cole, 1979;Oliver & Wilkinson, 1992), Europe (Kumon & Abo, 2004) and China (Aoki, 2008;Hong, Easterby-Smith, & Snell, 2006;Taylor, 2001). Recent, research has shown that Japanese companies are facing problems transferring kaizen internationally due to the difficulties with adjusting to different environments .…”

“…For example, Hong et al (2006), Taylor (1999), and Aoki (2008) examined the transferability of Japanese practices to China. Saka (2004) and Oliver and Wilkinson (1992) examined the diffusion of Japanese operations, including kaizen, to the UK while Kenney and Florida (1993) looked at the transfer to the US.…”