Background: For companies operating globally, expatriates represent a knowledge resource. When different ways of thinking, different experiences and ideas meet, new ideas and knowledge are created. Managers who have lived and worked abroad make an essential addition to the range of ideas and experiences that a company can make use of. While going on an international assignment offers the opportunity to acquire knowledge, finishing one, and moving on, offers the opportunity to transfer this knowledge and utilize it in the organization. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how a global corporation utilizes the knowledge its expatriates gain during international assignments. Realization: We have looked at utilization of expatriates’ knowledge at Tetra Pak from both the HR managers’ and the expatriates’ point of view. We conducted five interviews with HR managers and sent out questionnaires to 60 expatriates, of which 21 replied. Conclusion: Knowledge management is highly topical at Tetra Pak right now. To open up for learning and to spread knowledge are priorities. Utilization of expatriates’ knowledge can be looked at on two levels, the individual- and the organizational level. On the individual level, it is very much a question of career management. On the organizational level, it is a matter of knowledge transfer and sharing. Transfer of knowledge in general is very much intended at Tetra Pak, but there is no focus on expatriates’ knowledge. Knowledge sharing on the other hand, seems to more or less “just happen”, it is a matter of learning by accident rather than intent.

<p>Background: For companies operating globally, expatriates represent a knowledge resource. When different ways of thinking, different experiences and ideas meet, new ideas and knowledge are created. Managers who have lived and worked abroad make an essential addition to the range of ideas and experiences that a company can make use of. While going on an international assignment offers the opportunity to acquire knowledge, finishing one, and moving on, offers the opportunity to transfer this knowledge and utilize it in the organization. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how a global corporation utilizes the knowledge its expatriates gain during international assignments. </p><p>Realization: We have looked at utilization of expatriates’ knowledge at Tetra Pak from both the HR managers’ and the expatriates’ point of view. We conducted five interviews with HR managers and sent out questionnaires to 60 expatriates, of which 21 replied. </p><p>Conclusion: Knowledge management is highly topical at Tetra Pak right now. To open up for learning and to spread knowledge are priorities. Utilization of expatriates’ knowledge can be looked at on two levels, the individual- and the organizational level. On the individual level, it is very much a question of career management. On the organizational level, it is a matter of knowledge transfer and sharing. Transfer of knowledge in general is very much intended at Tetra Pak, but there is no focus on expatriates’ knowledge. Knowledge sharing on the other hand, seems to more or less “just happen”, it is a matter of learning by accident rather than intent.</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jorge Tenorio Fernando.pdf: 544179 bytes, checksum: a07e6ce74f644e85cced599765c1c65c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-03 / This paper bears upon the quest and interest to deepen the comprehension of the myriad of concepts emerging from the field of knowledge creation and management by cutting them in such a way as to allow for verification of its practical results when applied to an organization s day-to-day activities. First, a brief description of the organizational knowledge is done, aiming to identify some of its meanings and perspectives in the literature for the management of an existing knowledge, as well as for the creation of a new knowledge, be it individual or organizational. Next, to illustrate the theoretical findings, providing it with concrete legitimacy, a field research is presented, in format of a case study of a consumer goods industry, seeking to analyze the organization knowledge creation standpoint in terms of its enabling conditions and the SECI process as developed by Nonaka (1994) and Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), in order to highlight its main elements, circumstances and effects on the operational level, namely, the product development team. Thus, at the end, hoped is to have detached some of the multiple facets of the knowledge management, its difficulties and possibilities as an strategic resource, and, above all, pointed out real creation and use dimensions for that knowledge by examining its application to the product development process in a consumer goods company in Brazil. / Este trabalho se pauta pela inquietude em aprofundar a compreensão dos inúmeros conceitos que emergiram no campo da criação e gestão do conhecimento, dando-lhes um recorte que permita verificar seus resultados práticos quando aplicados no dia-a-dia de uma organização. Neste estudo será realizada, em primeiro lugar, uma breve descrição da taxonomia do conhecimento nas organizações, visando identificar algumas de suas perspectivas e acepções descritas pela literatura não só para a gestão do conhecimento existente, mas também para a criação de um novo conhecimento, quer individual, quer organizacional. Para ilustrar o estudo teórico, conferindo-lhe concretude, é apresentada pesquisa de campo, em forma de estudo de caso, de uma indústria de bens de consumo, objetivando analisar a etapa da criação do conhecimento na organização do ponto de vista de suas condições capacitadoras e do processo SECI desenvolvidos por Nonaka (1994) e Nonaka e Takeuchi (1995), para então observar seus principais elementos, circunstâncias e efeitos no nível operacional, isto é, nos grupos de desenvolvimento de produto. Ao final, espera-se haver depreendido algumas das múltiplas facetas do conhecimento organizacional, suas dificuldades e possibilidades de uso enquanto recurso estratégico, e, sobretudo, assinalado dimensões de criação e emprego real desse conhecimento, mediante o exame de sua aplicação ao processo de desenvolvimento de produtos em uma indústria de bens de consumo no Brasil.