Exptriate's motivation to transfer knowledge

Abstract

Knowledge is an increasingly important asset in multinational companies and transferring it has many challenging aspects. This study had its base on the impediments of transferring knowledge.

The objective of this study was to explore what motivates the expatriates to transfer knowledge. The theoretical framework consisted of theories of knowledge, knowledge transfer and motivation. Individuals affect on knowledge transfer process is not much researched, though some research with similar subject is conducted and used as base for this study as well.

The type of the study was explorative and the chosen research method was qualitative. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted by interviewing expatriates on their assignments in Eastern Europe, mainly in the Czech Republic. The interviews were made on the telephone.

According to the empirical results of the study, the expatriates are motivated to transfer knowledge on different levels: Individual, interpersonal, relational and group-level.