Knowledge Appropriation and HRM: The MNC Experience in Tanzania

Abstract

The extant literature on knowledge appropriation, corporate control and transfer within multinational companies (MNCs) tend to focus on the role of the firm, unit and subsidiary levels, often emphasizing on firms’ capabilities, knowledge assets and knowledge processes with little emphasis on how these are related to the capability of individual behaviours, social contexts and team cultures across different societal contexts (Hedlund, 1994; Snape et al., 1998; Mudambi et al., 2007; Abrahamson and Eisenman, 2008). In these circumstances, appropriation is normally understood as ‘the allocation of rents where property rights are not fully defined’ (Grant, 1991, p. 128). In the case of managing human resources (HR), there exists an ambiguity over what constitutes a resource and the ownership of control over resources. We argue in this chapter that the management of corporate culture and HR can be understood in terms of an ‘appropriation regime’ that functions through mechanisms of control to strengthen the organization’s capacity to secure the benefits from the utilization of resources. We also argue that the perspective of appropriation raises valuable questions about whose interests are served, and how power is implicated in the process of diffusing and appropriating knowledge (e.g. Kamoche, 2006; Frenkel, 2008; Pinnington et al., 2009).