Proposition 8b – Scaffolding Directed at Knowledge

In the previous section, we examined activities that returnees engage in to prepare their colleague to accept foreign knowledge. Another important aspect of scaffolding knowledge into a learner’s zone of proximal development is to focus on making the knowledge ‘easier’ or more accessible to the learner. The theme of 6 of the vignettes that we collected was on how returnees actually made foreign knowledge easier for their colleagues to access. They did this by helping colleagues with interpretation and

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translation needs; contacting foreign firms for colleagues; and explicating foreign

knowledge so that it was accessible to colleagues in the future. In this way, the returnees act as boundary spanners that bridge foreign knowledge and networks (Wenger, 2000).

In vignette 24, a junior sales manager from a large financial firm was the first to conduct a foreign 'Non Deal Roadshow (NRD)10' for his firm. Given his foreign

background and language skills, he was able to do the research and contact the necessary agencies with relative ease. However, there would have been few people in his firm that could have completed this task. In order to make this knowledge available to his

colleagues to use in the future, he documented all the procedures and developed a guide for non-returnees.

Our department had never done an NDR for IR [investor relations] outside of Korea. But last year we went to Hong Kong and we did the IR for a company which we were going to get listed. Nobody in the company knows how to do this. I was able to do the work since nobody knows about the full process. I had to start from scratch. I had to ask people, use the entire network that I know. It was pretty hard work but it was possible because I can speak English. I think that was the only reason…I basically built the system, and made everything systemized. So, even if I am not there, the work can be done. After the trip to Hong Kong, I made everything into a document and I passed it out to my colleagues. Without me, maybe they can’t do an international NDR…This year they went to India without me. They ask me a lot of questions about how this works. Then, I just gave them my documents and then explained it.

(Vignette 24, Returnee #38, Company J)

10

Non-Deal Roadshow (NDR) or Roadshow—a series of presentations made to investors and other interested parties in advance of a new issue, usually of equity. It provides potential investors with an opportunity to meet management and to ask question ( Moles, P. & Terry, N. 1997. roadshow, The Handbook of International Financial Terms. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.)

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In vignette 25, a senior project manager takes on the role as a boundary spanner for his colleagues by attending meetings that are only tangentially related to his duties to help colleagues understand cultural context when meeting foreigners.

We meet many different foreign companies and subsidiaries from the States, UK, France, Finland, and Japan. So, the common language is English and the common mind is the business mind of the western business. So, we have to be close to western people's mind. That is why it is much easier for me to access them. Of course, people here speak English well, but sometimes they need interpreters. Also, a lot of meaning and understanding gets lost in the translations. You need to be close to western people's mind to understand them. So very often, I am asked by colleagues in other departments to join in meetings. I can explain a lot of the details that get lost in translation. This has been really helpful in getting some projects on track… Understanding international business matters and also understanding how they do international business is important. I think I help people a lot that way. (Vignette 25, Returnee #13, Company A)

Vignette 27 retells a narrative from a middle manager in a large financial firm. Her international experience had allowed her to develop a large network of people working in firms in the USA. She was able to contact that network to help set up benchmarking tours for senior members of her firm. Because she was able to access a network of people for the purpose of benchmarking, her firm was able to access foreign knowledge that would not have been possible without someone like her. Her boundary spanning role eliminated the social distances that would have made benchmarking less feasible.

At [University], we have a strong alumni association—we have more than 2,000 alumni. I am a key member of the association in Korea. I was the President of the Chapter. So, I have a large network there. Those people range from Presidents of their company to junior managers. So whenever I need to make a contact in the US or Korea, I use the network. Now we are starting a benchmarking project. Some executives want to visit global companies in US. I helped them using my network. So they use me for that

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kind of things. I offer my contacts in the US and my language

skills…Whenever people come to me for help, it is because they do not have a network outside the company; they only have a network within the company. My colleagues have only stayed in Samsung their whole life. I have worked in several companies both in the US and in Korea. Because I have been working on building networks for a long time, I can easily do it. I can just write the company and ask for help.

(Vignette 27, Returnee #15, Company F)

Like a good teacher, who presents knowledge in a way that is accessible to the learner, returnees are able to facilitate the learning of foreign knowledge of their colleagues by taking the necessary steps to make proximal foreign knowledge and networks that are distant to other members of the organization. In this way, the foreign knowledge needed to implement change is within workgroup members’ zone of proximal development.

Proposition 8b: Over time, returnees can increase their workgroup’s ZPD by engaging in scaffolding activities that makes foreign knowledge more accessible to their colleagues.