What Can Reverse Mentoring Relationships Contribute to Communities of Practice involving Developed and Rising Economies?

Developing Cooperation between Developed and Emerging Economies

According to the third annual McKinsey survey on Research and Development (R&D), one-third of executives around the world stated that their companies are not doing any R&D work in emerging economies. This is the case even though all companies identified by the report as “high performing innovators” were actually doing R&D work in emerging economies and were more likely to use centralized databases and draw on global communities of practice to share information than other companies. Among the barriers to developing R&D units in emerging companies, the report cited companies’ dissatisfaction with the performance of managers in emerging countries and lack of knowledge sharing as being universal (McKinsey, 2011).

The challenge that this chapter speaks into is to find ways to share knowledge and bridge management practices between developing and emerging economies in a way that defies destructive attitudes and harnesses the complementary expertise of developed and emerging economies. Global communities of practice are a potentially useful means for facilitating cooperation between individuals in both, offering relatively easy access to local knowledge and expertise for the former and the opportunity to interact with experienced employees from developed countries seeking that expertise for the latter. Communities of practice provide a platform for the contributions of experts and members with diverse background and experience to come together. Wenger & Snyder (2004) outline their core purpose as “To develop member’s capabilities; to build and exchange knowledge” (p.128). Yet not enough is known about communities of practice and their potential to facilitate cooperation between experts from developed countries and rising economies.