Human resource management and knowledge management: enhancing knowledge sharing in a pharmaceutical company

There is a gap in understanding the implications for human resource management practices of the rising interest in managing knowledge (Scarbrough and Carter, 2000). As a response, this paper takes an organizational learning perspective to reflect more critically upon the problems of managing knowledge. In particular, it highlights employees' unwillingness to share knowledge with others as crucial in determining the contribution human resource practices can make to managing knowledge (Alvesson and Karreman, 2001; Easterby-Smith et al., 2000; Hayes and Walsham, 2000; Mueller and Dyerson, 1999; Pritchard et al., 2000; Willmott, 2000). Specifically, the paper considers the contribution that human resource management practices can make in mediating a functionally based organizational structure and culture in a global pharmaceutical company.