Using tacit knowledge in organizational change: A case study of the Swedish model of management in Singapore

As a result of greater individual mobility, international organizations face the challenge of creating, harvesting, managing and retaining employee knowledge effectively. This study focuses on the use of tacit knowledge by Swedish managers in order to direct Swedish managed Singapore subsidiaries effectively. The concept of knowledge in this paper is situated in interpretive discourse, working with the assumption that knowledge is socially constructed, embedded in social and cultural contexts. The purpose of this study is two-fold, (i) to show how Swedish managers in Singapore leverage their tacit knowledge in the form of the Swedish management model to implement organizational changes, and (ii) to outline the effects of the use of the Swedish management model in Singapore on creating, harvesting and the retaining of knowledge within the organization. The methods of analysis employed are grounded theory and discourse analysis on long interviews.