Superior-subordinate Knowledge Transfer: What Superior-subordinate Knowledge Transfer Strategies Are Favored by Highly Effective General Managers to Create Value for Their Organizations?

This qualitative study of 20 General Managers working in Canadian organizations found that understanding the nature of General Manager-subordinate knowledge transfer is critical to understanding how value-creating knowledge is acquired, created, transferred and applied in an organization. The following 10 characteristics of knowledge transfer strategies between GMs and their subordinates were identified: All of the GMs studied work in the presence of a strong information technology (IT) infrastructure; GMs believe that effective knowledge transfer creates value for organizations and their clients; GMs view value-creating knowledge transfer as part of a virtuous cycle : (as knowledge is brought to the cycle by the GM or a subordinate the total knowledge residing within the dyad increases, knowledge sharing within the dyad increases, knowledge creation is accelerated and the cycle continues); GMs treat knowledge as an asset that needs to be cultivated, managed, and shared; GMs treat value-creating knowledge as a corporate resource and not an individual one; GMs are clear about their knowledge transfer strategy; GMs link knowledge transfer to performance and provide incentives; GMs operate within a knowledge-friendly culture; they create a flexible knowledge transfer structure; finally, GMs have senior management support for their knowledge transfer initiatives.