Article Review
SHRM and Tacit Knowledge Transfer: A Case Study
The Article under scrutiny was written by Abdelwahab Aït Razouk, Mohamed Bayad and Delphine Wannenmacher for the Journal Human Systems Management in the year 2009. The authors wish to explore the link between Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Knowledge transfer within an organization. It is well understood from the abstract of the article that the authors are very clear about what they wish to investigate- Their objective is to study how the ‘Tacit Knowledge’ transferred is assisted and aided by the perspectives and practices of SHRM.
The paper is well organized and presents all information in well defined sections. Post the Introduction, Section 2 begins with the Tacit Knowledge Transfer. The literature is reviewed and the definition and ‘Knowledge transfer with learning’ are discussed. Pointed out are the various researchers that have contributed to the development of the concept.
Next in Section 3, the authors discuss the SHRM and the concepts involved are discussed. While defining the SHRM and concepts, the authors declare how the HR competences can be measured through the ‘Accounting Approach, and the ‘Competence Approach’. The authors then declare that the ‘Accounting Approach’ was found to be inappropriate to human resource as the methods of valorization were conceived to be applied to capital-money (material and transferable resource) and not to human capital (immaterial and non-transferable resource) (Ait Razouk, Bayad and Wannenmacher, 2009). The ‘Competence Approach’ was found to be more applicable in measuring HR competencies and its contribution towards the competitive advantage of a company. The rationale for the research is thus very clear: It is to study the ‘knowledge being of value and not easily transferable, that can create a sustainable competitive advantage for a company’. In other words how knowledge is important and the SHRM practices that promote it.
The authors then also discuss the current SHRM practices and the treatment of ‘Tacit knowledge’ in an organization. The authors point out some of the research that has been carried out in the field. It says that research from Narasimha found SHRM to be a lever of tacit knowledge transfer. The author is of the opinion that the previous works in ‘Tacit knowledge’ have identified its importance in SHRM but have failed to provide and objective answer to the question “What is the link between Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) and Knowledge transfer?”
The research approach of the authors is to study all the Human Resource and Management (HRM) activities of a crystal manufacturing company “Alpha Enterprise”, with respect to knowledge transfer. The activities studied are: Recruitment, Integration, Training, Succession and Compensation. The research is largely qualitative and exploratory and information is collected through interviews with HR professional. No justification for the methodology is provided. However, the authors are of the opinion that the Knowledge transfer analyzed in the case study takes place in a particular context, this of crystal manufactures founded on hand work which are mainly centred on know-how which is tacit knowledge (Ait Razouk, Bayad and Wannenmacher, 2009). The decision of the industry chosen is thus clear as the intention is to study the transfer of ‘tacit knowledge’ in an organization. All the activities are scrutinized before drawing any conclusions.
The results of the case study reveal that the Alpha firm HR strategy (recruitment, integration, training, succession and compensation) appears coherent with its objective which is to transfer the knowledge. HR strategy implemented by the Alpha manufacture allowed, through a sharing culture, mutual confidence and human resources valorization, achieving a progressive capitalization of know-how which ensures the viability of this manufacture (Ait Razouk, Bayad and Wannenmacher, 2009).
The results of the study conclude that SHRM practices can also be seen like connection between workers and organization. The authors also point out that the study does have its limitations as the sample is small and the sector prohibits generalizing of the results. The authors believe that future work following this exploratory study should be quantitative.
Aït Razouk, A, Bayad, M, & Wannenmacher, D 2009, Strategic human resource management and tacit knowledge transfer: A case study, Human Systems Management, 28(1/2), pp. 77-82
