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Using Mentoring and Storytelling to Transfer Knowledge in the Workplace

Journal of Management Information Systems, 18(1), 95–114 (2001).

Psychology at Tufts University, USA

Professor of Psychology at Tufts University.

where he chaired the Psychology Department and was Dean of the Colleges. His research interests include group dynamics, attitudes and attitude change, altruism, and creativity. He is the author of When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups with Dorothy Leonard and the editor of Group Decision Making, as well as the author of numerous articles in scholarly journals.

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Dorothy A. Leonard

Business Administration at Harvard Business School, USA

William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

where she has taught since 1983. Her research, teaching, and consulting focus on the management of knowledge and innovation with particular emphasis on communication and human behavior. Author of Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation and (with Walter Swap) When Sparks Fly, she has published over 100 articles, book chapters, and field-based cases.

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Mimi Shields

Technology and Operations Management Group at Harvard Business School, USA

She holds a Master's degree in Social Psychology from Harvard University and has taught psychology and statistics at Harvard University, Harvard Business School, and the Harvard Extension School. She has conducted research at the Murry Research Center, Radcliffe College, and was project coordinator for a longitudinal study at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

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, and

Lisa Abrams

Lisa Abrams has Master's degrees from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. Currently she is a researcher and consultant at the IBM Institute for Knowledge Management where her work is focused on social capital, trust and the Internet.

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https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814295505_0006Cited by:4 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract:

The core capabilities of an organization include critical skills of employees, management systems, and norms and values. Core capabilities may be transferred formally and explicitly. However, much knowledge, particularly knowledge with rich tacit dimensions, is transferred informally through processes of socialization and internalization. We focus on two transfer mechanisms—mentoring and storytelling—that can leverage the knowledge of an organization, particularly its tacit knowledge, to build core capabilities. We draw on relevant research in learning and cognitive psychology to clarify the conditions under which mentoring and storytelling can be most effective as carriers of knowledge. Finally, we present recommendations for specific managerial practices that follow from our analysis.

Keywords:

Managing Knowledge Assets, Creativity and Innovation

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Using Mentoring and Storytelling to Transfer Knowledge in the Workplace

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