The Impact of Culture on Knowledge Transfer in Business Organizations

Abstract

The researcher believes that this paper makes an important contribution to the existing literature on knowledge transfer and the implications of cultural differences in business practice, by providing the ground work required forfurther research and investigation into the relationship between culture and knowledge transfer in Nigeria. The word culture in this paper denotes both organizational and national culture. An understanding of national culture may be gained using Hofstede‟s [1] five indices to assess basic cultural values, as well as Trompenaars [2] five value dimensions, among others. Corporate culture, in this article, is used as a context for leadership, employee behavior and trust, among other factors. Since this paper is an exploratory study, inferences will be made based on observation as well as on preliminary data collected through two focus groups composed of around 30 junior and senior managers each, employed in various leading multinational and local companies in Nigeria within different

sectors.

Keywords: Knowledge Transfer, National culture, Organizational culture, Nigeria.