The DBA Thesis “Crossing cultural boundaries: transfer of Management Knowledge and Skills between organizational cultures” was the result of 10-years extensive research by Cees A.M. den Teuling, conducted for the acquiring of the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree at Sheffield Hallam University U.K. and Business School Netherlands. It was finalized in 2018 and made a great contribution in the literature on cultural differences between Western and Russian business cultures.
Summary of the DBA Thesis “Crossing cultural boundaries: transfer of Management Knowledge and Skills between organizational cultures”.
The central subject of this thesis is the knowledge transfer process, especially in transboundary environments through the lens of cultural diversity and cultural awareness, the influences on knowledge transfer in Russian organizations, leading to the sustainable creation of values and to substantiation of the “comparative advantages” of the recipient organization. Thus, it explores the conundrum of a variance of functions by examining the substantial factors, which affect the knowledge transfer system itself, the personal and environmental conditions, to react to the research question: “How can management consultants overcome the gaps, barriers and stumbling blocks in the daily operations of the transfer of managerial knowledge and skills in intercultural contexts, in order to provide ensured, sustainable value creation for clients”?
To study the subject, first the review and integration of the literature from Western and Russian perspectives was conducted for revealing the positions of scholars in the related areas, such as the national culture and its dimensions, social environment, organizational culture, roles and styles of the actors in the knowledge transfer process, organizational learning and absorptive capacity.