The experience of being a knowledge manager in a multinational : a practice perspective

Inspired by the lack of research on the practices of knowledge managers in the literature and the existing dominance of the building mode in strategy-as-practice research, this thesis has two attempts. One is to examine how the knowledge managers, as strategizing practitioners, do their job via intentional doing and practical coping in their particular context. Another is to understand how knowledge managers, as strategizing practitioners, live in their position. To develop an investigation framework, this thesis relies on the pragmatic theory of John Dewey, especially his perspective on the transactional relationship between man and the environment. The empirical investigation is carried out based on the six inter-related procedures put forward by van Manen (1990), which are in line with the spirit of hermeneutic phenomenology. Seven knowledge managers of a multinational, who work in different countries, including France, Austria, China, and Canada, were interviewed during two sessions of two hours. The interviews are semi-structured. The interpretation process relies on the model proposed by Benner (1994), which performs cross-case thematic analysis to show the common threads between the stories of the knowledge managers, and studies the paradigm cases using withincase analysis to understand the individuality of each story. Exemplars are used to convey the different aspects of the themes and paradigm cases presented. Validity is enhanced by internal verification and testing of interpretive description, craftsmanship quality (Kvale, 1996), and a validation of findings by the participant. An “audit trail” (Koch, 1994) is kept to help the reader follow the rationale of the researcher’s interpretations. The analysis reveals that the main particularity of knowledge management is that it is a new function. The knowledge managers have to build a place for the knowledge management function through a strategizing process to gain acceptance. The knowledge managers can be compared with the rafters on an angry river, with the river indicating the organizational context, and the rafting representing the strategizing process. The knowledge managers, as the rafters, are carried on as well as endangered by the current. They fight to protect their inflatable boat from sinking by trying to avoid the obstacles and taking advantage of what is useful for them on the river. From the cross-case thematic analysis, the strategizing actions, undertaken by the knowledge managers, are grouped into three categories: intentional, emergent, and constraint-responding. They are labelled marketing, island-finding, and force-building, respectively. From the paradigm-case analysis, the knowledge managers are divided into three groups based on their capability to survive the turbulent organizational context and build a territory for the knowledge management function. Among the seven knowledge manager, one has decided to give up the position, four are still struggling with the obstacles and the powerful current to obtain a place within the organizational life, and two have achieved certain success. They are named the defeated, the struggling, and the contented, respectively.

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