Sometimes we get the opportunity in Knowledge Network UK to hear from a speaker who is from a different background to our professional services and knowledge management background, and it is always interesting and thought-provoking.

Today we heard from Dr Gaggiotti, course director of the MBA at UWE, who talked about his specialist area of expertise – international management.

Dr Gaggiotti has a fascinating background, having a PhD in Anthropology as well as an MRes in Management, which involved six years ethnographic fieldwork working with global managers in the oil and gas industry.

Personally, I knew very little about international projects and management. My area of practice when I practised law was UK clinical negligence, so I rarely even considered non-UK laws, let alone had the opportunity to work abroad. Now I’m networked into many different countries and meet a variety of KMers on my foundations in KM course, although I still don’t work abroad.

Despite this, I found the session really interesting. I studied international cultures as part of my MBA, but it was interesting to hear the more up to date research into the field and new understanding of its complexity.

In particular, it was interesting to learn that it is more important to clients these days to have a multiplicity of nationalities on a foreign project, than it is to have a particular person on the team who matches the client’s culture/language. And it was interesting to learn about the particular sensitivities needed when  sending managers against the traditional/historical flow, i.e. from Finland to Sweden, or from India to UK.

As always at KN-UK, it was interesting to have my assumptions questioned and to learn something new and widen my perspective a little.

___

If you are interested in the topic of international management and would like to chat to Dr Gaggiotti, his contact details are here.

If you are interested in widening your perspective and would like to come to KN-UK, there is more info here, or you can get in touch with me.