Enhancing knowledge exchange and combination through HR practices: reflexivity as a translation process.
Monks, Kathy, Conway, Edel, Fu, NaORCID: 0000-0003-2507-0585, Bailey, Catherine, Kelly, Gráinne and Hannon, Enda
(2016)
Enhancing knowledge exchange and combination through HR practices: reflexivity as a translation process.
Human Resource Management Journal, 26
(3).
pp. 304-320.
ISSN 0954-5395
Knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs) need to encourage their employees to engage in
knowledge exchange and combination (KEC) so as to create the new knowledge that
is core to their success. Human resource management (HRM) has the potential to play
a key role in encouraging KEC but relatively little is known about the micro-processes
through which HRM and KEC are linked. Based on a sample of 498 knowledge workers
in 14 KIFs in the pharmaceutical and ICT sectors in Ireland and the UK, this study
focuses on the knowledge workers themselves and their perceptions of how HR
practices influence KEC. In so doing, we drill down into the micro-foundations of the
proposed linkages between HRM and knowledge creation, proffering reflexivity as a
translation process in understanding these linkages.