Intercultural Knowledge Management: A Challenge for Multinational Enterprises

MA-Thesis / Master, die am 01.07.2002 erfolgreich an einer Fachhochschule in Deutschland im Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften eingereicht wurde. Abstract: It was in the mid 1990's, when the world of business has recognized the importance of continuous innovations and intensive knowledge sharing. New management concepts such as performance, innovation and knowledge management increasingly emerged. This will undoubtedly determine the future success or failure of multinational enterprises, facing unpredictable market situations. Since business has moved towards a knowledge-driven economy, innovation and new knowledge creation become key factors for success within any industry. With the rise of the web and multimedia technologies, companies have become able to capture, store, organize, share and apply an enormous amount of information. Nowadays, important knowledge and expertise, which was captured in the heads of the employees in former times, should be attainable at any time and any place around the world. But is it like that in reality? First of all knowledge management is a social process between individuals committed to constantly communicate explicit knowledge. Successful knowledge sharing can not be based on technical instruments and databases. It is more a question of corporate culture. Successful and effective knowledge sharing can only be realized by people with a great corporate understanding, values, culture and leadership in order to avoid a culture of knowledge hoarding among the different departments or business units. In intercultural context knowledge has got more dimensions and it is more subtle. People from different cultural background are shaped by different understandings of knowledge and it's communication. Because of that the approach for an effective intercultural knowledge management effort has be observed from different point of views. Only a very sensitive approach with the intention of