Intercultural Knowledge Transfer in Teams

Abstract

The following chapter is dedicated to knowledge management, whereby the focus is on the transfer of relevant knowledge in an intercultural team. The purpose of this study was to empirically examine, how an intercultural team deals with the cultural diversity of its members and how it influences the knowledge transfer. The research object was the intercultural team of the research institute Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre at the Münster University of Applied Sciences (MUAS) in Germany. Ten guided interviews were conducted with ten employees of ten different nationalities. As the investigation has shown, the processes of knowledge transfer within the team of the research centre are not standardized. The actual transfer of knowledge occurs between team members on a personal level during intercultural communication in a setting of provided framework conditions. The team's cultural diversity is able not only to transfer but also to generate new knowledge. Intercultural competence in a provided framework is the crucial factor for successful cross-cultural knowledge transfer.