title: Knowledge transfer and knowledge building at offshored technical support centers

authors: Chen, Jihong

subjects: knowledge building

abstract: This study investigates knowledge transfer and knowledge building at three technical support centers (TSCs) which have been offshored to China. Utilizing an interpretive case study approach, the study examined how organizational knowledge was transferred from the US-based onshore TSC to a China-based offshore TSC, and how China-based knowledge was built and expanded in a dynamic changing business context. A model is presented which was developed from qualitative analysis of the field data, and this model aids understanding of how knowledge was transferred and built at the individual level, the group level and the organization level at the China-based offshored TSC. The shared mental models of the people in the organizations helped individual knowledge to be linked to group knowledge, and then to organizational knowledge. The ongoing informal communication, close interaction and coordination between onshore and offshore group members facilitated the knowledge transfer from onshore to offshored TSC. The model presented also demonstrates the knowledge flow through knowledge intermediaries in the offshored knowledge transfer and building processes, and provides new insights into organizational learning in an offshored business context.

text: Knowledge transfer and knowledge building at offshored technical support centers This study investigates knowledge transfer and knowledge building at three technical support centers (TSCs) which have been offshored to China. Utilizing an interpretive case study approach, the study examined how organizational knowledge was transferred from the US-based onshore TSC to a China-based offshore TSC, and how China-based knowledge was built and expanded in a dynamic changing business context. A model is presented which was developed from qualitative analysis of the field data, and this model aids understanding of how knowledge was transferred and built at the individual level, the group level and the organization level at the China-based offshored TSC. The shared mental models of the people in the organizations helped individual knowledge to be linked to group knowledge, and then to organizational knowledge. The ongoing informal communication, close interaction and coordination between onshore and offshore group members facilitated the knowledge transfer from onshore to offshored TSC. The model presented also demonstrates the knowledge flow through knowledge intermediaries in the offshored knowledge transfer and building processes, and provides new insights into organizational learning in an offshored business context.

year: 2013

title: Statistical representations of the housing problem in briefings to incoming ministers, 2008–2020: The politics of housing numbers

authors: Barrett, Patrick

abstract: An interpretive policy studies perspective on what is understood to be the ‘facts’ about the housing problem in New Zealand has potential to uncover the way statistical representations of problems are embedded in larger normative narratives, and the consequential implications for housing policy and governance. This paper analyses such representations as they are evident in policy briefings to incoming Ministers of Housing between 2008 and 2020 by Housing New Zealand (HNZ) and its successor Kāinga Ora, and the way these reflect and reinforce a neoliberal political rationality and an agenda to residualise and marketise state housing support. The briefings represent authoritative accounts by a key bureaucratic advisory agency of the significant issues and priorities in the housing portfolio. The period prior to 2017 saw the emergence of new articulations of housing problems relating to affordability, declining rates of home ownership, an increasing rental population, and increasing homelessness. In the briefings to ministers, these problems were routinely framed as issues of supply and demand and market adjustment, and this has continued following the change of government in 2017. The focus of the paper is on identifying statistical representations within the discursive context that give weight to particular policy choices.

text: Statistical representations of the housing problem in briefings to incoming ministers, 2008–2020: The politics of housing numbers An interpretive policy studies perspective on what is understood to be the ‘facts’ about the housing problem in New Zealand has potential to uncover the way statistical representations of problems are embedded in larger normative narratives, and the consequential implications for housing policy and governance. This paper analyses such representations as they are evident in policy briefings to incoming Ministers of Housing between 2008 and 2020 by Housing New Zealand (HNZ) and its successor Kāinga Ora, and the way these reflect and reinforce a neoliberal political rationality and an agenda to residualise and marketise state housing support. The briefings represent authoritative accounts by a key bureaucratic advisory agency of the significant issues and priorities in the housing portfolio. The period prior to 2017 saw the emergence of new articulations of housing problems relating to affordability, declining rates of home ownership, an increasing rental population, and increasing homelessness. In the briefings to ministers, these problems were routinely framed as issues of supply and demand and market adjustment, and this has continued following the change of government in 2017. The focus of the paper is on identifying statistical representations within the discursive context that give weight to particular policy choices.

year: 2021

title: Book review:  Ikawai: freshwater fishes in Māori culture and economy

authors: Hicks, Brendan J.

abstract: This article reviews the book : “Ikawai: freshwater fishes in Māori culture and economy”, by RM McDowall.

text: Book review:  Ikawai: freshwater fishes in Māori culture and economy This article reviews the book : “Ikawai: freshwater fishes in Māori culture and economy”, by RM McDowall.

year: 2012