Knowledge Transfer as Translation: Review and Elements of an Instrumental Theory

Abstract

Based on a literature review, this paper investigates the potential of translation theory to energize the study of knowledge transfer between source and recipient organizational units. The central assumption is that translation theory is not only useful for analyzing knowledge‐transfer processes, but also has the potential to guide deliberate interventions in such processes. Based on this premise, and drawing on insights from the neighboring academic discipline of translation studies, the author outlines the elements of an instrumental translation theory, with the aim of developing knowledge about how to conduct translations of practices and ideas to achieve various organizational ends in knowledge transfers. The instrumental theory is founded on two main arguments. The first is that knowledge transfers between organizations are rule‐based translation processes. The second is that the way in which translators use various translation rules and perform translations may be decisive for outcomes of knowledge‐transfer processes. This study develops a typology of three translation modes (the reproducing, the modifying and the radical mode) and four appurtenant translation rules (copying, addition, omission and alteration), and discusses which translation rules fit which conditions. The author identifies three critical conditional variables in knowledge transfers – the translatability of the source practice, the transformability of the transferred knowledge, and the similarity between source and recipient units – and discusses the appropriateness of each translation rule in relation to these variables.