Best Practice Transfer: A review of case study examples
A Review of Best Practice Transfer Case Studies
Indiana University Bloomington
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Best Practice Transfer: A review of case study examples
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Introduction
It is estimated that U.S. organizations spend over $125 billion annually on employee
training and development (Paradise, 2007). As with any invested capital, firms are consistently
questioning the value of these investments based on the benefit to trainee, and in turn, the
improvement in workplace performance. A logical subset of these investments is spent on
assisting the transfer of best practices within the firm from one individual or business unit to
another. It is surprising, therefore, that in the past 20 years, there has been a tremendous amount
of variability in the research findings regarding which predictors actually make a difference in
facilitating this transfer (Cheng & Hampson, 2008).
A review of recent case studies on the effectiveness of best practice transfer reveals a
number of common themes: levels of transfer, best practice production approaches, cultural
barriers to transfer, contextual fit assessment, organizational support enablers, and post-transfer
maintenance techniques. An emerging role for human computer interaction as a mediator of
knowledge transfer is also evident in the literature.
Transfer of learning – Theoretical foundations of best practice transfer
The transfer of learning has been an area of study for both psychologists and educators
for over 100 years. Researchers have debated the nature, contexts, and prevalence of transfer
(Barnett & Ceci, 2002), and common themes around the complexity and dynamic qualities of the
process have emerged. Adams (1987) describes transfer as “the extent to which learning of a
response in one task or situation influences the response in another task or situation” (p. 44).
Blume et al., (2009) define transfer comprised of two main characteristics: a) generalization, or
the extent to which knowledge acquired in a learning setting is applied to different contexts, and
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b) maintenance, or the extent to which changes that result from a learning experience persist over
time.
Generalization is supported by the findings of Bass & Vaughan (1966), who concluded
that this process allows people to respond appropriately to new situations because of similarities
with familiar ones. Gagne (1965) refined this process by identifying two types of generalization.
Lateral transfer occurs when a skill spreads over a broad set of situations at the same level of
complexity or difficulty, whereas vertical transfer occurs when an acquired skill leads to the
acquisition of a superordinate or more complex skill.
Research has supported a further delineation between near and far transfer tasks. Near
transfer tasks are characterized as being similar to the learning task, and are far more likely than
far transfer tasks, which are quite different from the learning setting. Near and far transfer also
applies to the temporal dimension. Examining the maintenance of transfer requires studying the
effects of far transfer tasks studied over months or years.
Best Practice Transfer
A working definition
Szulanski (2003) defines best practice as a “relevant example that yields better results
than any known alternative” (p. 11). This definition appears simple enough, but as O’Dell and
Jackson-Grayson (1998) point out, best practice is a moving target, and the notion of “best”
remains situation specific. Some companies have adopted their own internal vocabulary for
describing a hierarchy for best practice. For example, Chevron defines four levels of best
practices: “Good Idea”, “Good Practice”, “Local Best Practice”, and “Industry Best Practice”
(Zairi & Whymark, 2000). Not only must a best practice prove valuable, it also has to be
applicable and adoptable by others.
Best Practice Transfer: A review of case study examples
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Transfers of best practice are dyadic exchanges of organizational knowledge. The word
transfer emphasizes that the movement of knowledge within the organization is a distinct
experience, not a gradual process of dissemination. Therefore, best practice transfer is not a
diffusive process, but rather a deliberate attempt to re-use that which has produced outstanding
results elsewhere in the organization.
The stickiness of transfer
As Dyer (1998) points out, most scholars divide knowledge into two categories, either
explicit or tacit knowledge. Best practice, involves know-how that is tacit, difficult to codify, and
therefore “sticky” to transfer. Szulanski (2003) found there to be four significant predictors of
stickiness: characteristics of knowledge, source, recipient, and context. Knowledge that is
unproven or causally ambiguous increases stickiness. Likewise, knowledge is hard to transfer
when either the source lacks motivation or credibility, or the recipient lacks absorptive or
retentive capacity. This was echoed by Blume et al., (2009) who found cognitive ability of the
recipient to have the single largest predictor relationship with transfer. The context within which
the transfer takes place has also been found to influence the stickiness of knowledge. Both
arduous relationships between source and recipient, along with the degree to which the
organizational climate is not fertile for transfer tend to increase transfer difficulties.
Summarizing Szulanski’s (2003) landmark study on stickiness, he found the three most
important barriers to knowledge transfer (in rank order) to be: lack of absorptive capacity of the
recipient, causal ambiguity of the knowledge, and the arduous relationship between source and
recipient. He suggests understanding how transfer happens could help unveil how these
difficulties are created in the first place, and more importantly, what can be done to overcome
them.
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Method for case study selection
In order to further explore how transfer happens, and the difficulties that ensue, a review
of the literature on existing case studies including best practice examples from disparate
geographies and organizational contexts was conducted. Google Scholar is particularly useful in
aggregating peer-reviewed papers, articles, dissertations, books, and articles from practitioners.
Therefore, a search was performed on Google Scholar using the search terms best practice case
study, and best practice Szulanski. Of the 3,050 references found, 11 were practitioner based case
studies that examined best practice transfer as the primary focus. These studies became the body
of literature examined in this review. The context for each of the case studies included in this
review are as follows: enterprise resource planning (ERP) software adoption by a major state
university in the U.S., supply chain integration of a global automotive manufacturer, operational
improvement of a hotel chain in St. Lucia, policy transfer among governmental agencies focused
on urban sustainability in the U.K., policy transfer and learning across national systems of
education and training, transfer of management practices in Chinese multinational companies
(MNCs), family planning best practice sharing through a global alliance of health organizations,
continuous improvement initiatives of a universal delivery service within the U.K., total quality
management initiatives in a global hi-tech firm, quality and benchmarking improvements in a
global reprographics manufacturer, and continuous improvement initiatives within the U.K.’s
largest nationwide building society.
The collection of case studies chosen for this literature review represents diversity in
terms of organizational domain, knowledge type, and geographic context. Although each study
provides a unique context for exploring the process of transfer, a number of common themes
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have emerged regarding not only the characteristics of systematic transfer, but also the barriers to
and enablers of successful transfer.
Themes
Classification of best practice
In operationalizing the definition of best practice, we see there are divergent views as to
whether any one singular definition of best practice is even possible in the field. In her study on
operational management practices in St. Lucia, Hope (2004) declares, “it is not possible to
identify one mode of operating which may be labeled ‘best practice’ (p. 46). In fact, Zairi &
Whymark (2000) found that at Royal Mail, “good practice” was used in preference to “best
practice” to signify the possibility of more than one approach being suitable to accomplish the
same task. In this context, good practice was defined as “any proven working practice which is
far enough ahead of the norm to provide significant performance gains if implemented” (p. 66).
Bulkeley (2006) sees these two terms synonymously, where in both cases, the term relates to an
initiative, policy measure, or procedure which is singled out as meeting certain sustainability
criteria.
However, others take a much more definitive approach to best practice identification. In
another case study, Zairi & Whymark (2000) found that Texas Instruments declares best practice
to be any technique, process, or tool that works best to improve a situation. Having a sound
methodology and common language for identifying best practice was seen as a contributing
factor to Texas Instruments track record of success in transferring best practice. Similarly, Lee et
al., (2007) discovered canonical processes embedded in a firm standard technology can be a very
effective way of declaring best practice knowledge.
Learning vs. Transfer
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Beyond these differences in the definition of best practice, there is also evidence of
multiple ways to interpret the process of transfer. Turbin (2001) refers to transfer as the “taking
of polices, practices, systems, or any other tangible artifact from one context and using them in
another” (p. 99). This is different from the way the term is used in academia, and does not refer
to the transfer of knowledge or skills from one setting to the next. The distinction that Turbin
makes between knowledge transfer and best practice transfer is significant because it suggests
that transfer of best practice can occur regardless of whether learning occurs or not.
In studying policy sharing amongst urban sustainability initiatives in the U.K. however,
Bulkeley (2006) contends that the process of best practice transfer is one in which not only is
new knowledge created, but sharing this knowledge with others provides learners with the
opportunity to reinterpret and reframe the nature of the best practice. Effectively, Bulkeley treats
policy learning as a subset of policy transfer in her case study. Using a schematic adapted from
Bulkeley (2006), Table 1 illustrates the association between learning and transfer observed in her
examination of best practice transfer. For example, she posits that when transfer is voluntary and
focused on learning about specific outcomes, transfer is confined to lesson-drawing on the part
of the recipient from the source’s best practice. Her work shows a necessary relationship
between learning and transfer, and aligns with the theorems defined by earlier research on the
transfer of learning.
Table 1. Transfer and Learning Matrix (adapted from Bulkeley, 2006)
Best Practice Transfer: A review of case study examples
Voluntary
Outcomes
Lesson-drawing
8
Coercive
Transfer
Obligated
Imposition
Practice-oriented learning
Learning
Social learning
Process
Discursive Approaches
Levels of Transfer
Bulkeley (2006) references the earlier work of Dolowitz & Marsh (2000) in suggesting
“four different degrees of transfer can be identified: copying, emulation, combinations, and
inspiration” (p. 1033). Beyond simply copying technical expertise, practitioners engaged with
best practices as a “source of inspiration, recognition, and legitimation for particular
interpretations” (p. 1039). Turbin (2001) also references a gradual adoption of successful
transfer, one in which best practice usually goes through a process of adaptation and
implementation that includes tailoring basic principles to the recipient environment, followed by
monitoring and further intervention as appropriate.
The production of best practice
Bulkeley (2006) points out that the production and selection of best practice can either be
explicit, by creating competitions and providing rewards for examples of best practice, or
implicit by selecting and promoting examples of action at the organizational level. Bulkeley
refers to a best practice package – inclusive of written case reports, policy documents, CD-ROM
databases or web-based tools. Zairi & Whymark (2000) found a similar packaging at Royal Mail,
where good practice required documentation in a formalized and consistent form as prescribed
by specific guidelines. At Xerox, these same authors found the use of a “toolkit for best
practice”. This toolkit served as a central repository for the collection of best practice, and this
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terminology was used to distinguish it from other manuals and to raise the profile of best practice
initiatives in the organization.
In studying the practices of Royal Mail further, Zairi & Whymark (2000), discovered a
vetting process that included submitting “good practices” to a panel for evaluation regarding the
appropriateness of the practice across other parts of the organization. The panel categorized the
good practice as either required, which made adoption mandatory, or recommended, which left
the application optional and dependent on business area leaders to implement as they saw fit. At
Texas Instruments, these same authors found executives asking two fundamental questions to
elicit best practice: 1) Did the practice lead to business excellence, and 2) Could someone else
improve their performance by using the practice?
Thomas et al., (2010) describe a more organic and self-directed approach to best practice
creation. Through the use of an online Community of Practice (CoP), an exchange of challenges
and best practices associated with teaching the priorities of family planning competencies was
best enabled by the creation of a member moderated discussion forum.
In all the case studies, however, there was a general recognition that producing and
disseminating best practice is insufficient. There is a need for active application of best practice
on the part of the recipient through action-oriented, intentional activity.
The impact of cultural differences
Perhaps the most overt case study of the impact of cultural differences on best practice
transfer was conducted by Hope (2004). This case study examined three large all-inclusive hotels
in St. Lucia with corporate ownership in the U.S. Hope’s findings indicate that culture had an
impact on the successful transfer of best practice. The cultural factors related to power distance
and risk avoidance caused barriers to empowerment that retarded the adoption of best practice.
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Turbin (2001) also sees culture as an important and often determining factor behind the
failure of many human resource management (HRM) practices to transfer across countries.
Context matters
Bulkeley (2006) found that rather than using best practice in isolation, the application of
best practice depended on knowing something both about the context within which the best
practice was created, and about the person responsible for originating the practice. Turbin (2001)
validates this premise, as a U.K. firm attempting to take on lessons from a German enterprise
found differences in the business climate and organizational environment as an explanation for
some of the difficulties encountered during the transfer process. She concludes in her study,
“One of the fundamental barriers to transfer that emerges from this brief description is the
embeddedness of training systems within their national, sectoral, and organizational context” (p.
103).
Technology enablers of best practice transfer
Lee et al., (2007) provide a case study on the implementation of an enterprise resource
planning (ERP) solution at a major state university in the U.S. to investigate how knowledge is
transferred to system users through ERP adoption. They found that tacit knowledge conflict was
triggered after members of the adopting organization started to use the newly implemented ERP
system. These conflicts stemmed from many long standing users’ understanding of the old
business process contradicting the new practices embedded in the ERP system. However, as
these users began to use the system, the knowledge acquired from the new ERP was shared and
exchanged to structure integrated knowledge and best practice. Both formal knowledge
structures formed by knowledge leaders and an online help system, along with informal practices
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such as user groups, email, and face-to-face communication assisted in the knowledge transfer of
best practice.
Thomas et al., (2010) found that online CoPs are effective mechanisms for creating
venues for colleagues to gather together, discuss, share best practices and learn strategies from
one another. In their study, the Global Alliance for Pre-Service Education (GAPS) project
created a number of online forums for the discussion of issues related to teaching and learning of
family planning best practices. Each forum had an objective, and invited participants were given
several weeks to dialog on the topic at hand. Following the completion of each forum discussion,
transcripts were distributed to small group of experts for validation, and then shared with the
broader GAPS community. Although it was reported that the self-moderated forums tended to
focus more on challenges than solutions, the direct cost of GAPS was a mere $21K over an eight
month period. This makes the use of CoPs a rather attractive low-cost option for promoting best
practice transfer.
There is one word of caution offered by Turbin (2001) regarding the process of
embedding best practice in technology assets that deserves mention. As an explicit means of
transfer, she exposes how continuing vocational training (CVT) systems run the danger of
promoting an underlying dependency on these systems for policy and borrowed practices.
Failure to understand institutional context may lead to both inappropriate borrowing, and
disastrous consequences. In examining the collaboration between a U.K. and German enterprise
to provide CVT to their respective workforces, the U.K. enterprise did not see the German
system as being appropriate within their context beyond a general awareness-raising, and there
was little transferred from one environment to another. When training becomes embedded within
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particular systems, it makes it difficult to import best practices into another context at a highly
specified level.
Organizational support for best practice transfer
While almost all of the studies examined pointed to the need for organizations to have the
proper incentives in place for transfer to occur, there are numerous other cited organizational
supports that led to successful transfers in practice. As Dyer & Nobeoka (2000) point out, best
practice is sticky know-how that is difficult to transfer. It requires “thick” or dense ties with
other members of an information sharing network to effectively transfer. Zhang & Edwards
(2007) witnessed this network develop firsthand between governmental officials of both the U.K.
and China. In fact, a network of all the top expatriates from the U.K. was created to share a
common interest in operating subsidiaries of multi-national corporations (MNCs).
In addition to organization of human resources to support transfer, multiple authors
reported the need for strong processes and systems to be in place for successful transfer to be
achieved. Turbin (2001) concluded that transfer of training practices, intended to contribute to
raising the skill levels of the recipient often fail because there is no system in place to support it.
Zairi & Whymark (2000) found that in addition to having an internal knowledgebase system to
enable best practice at Texas Instruments, successful transfer was also dependent upon having a
process for transfer that included linking best practice to organizational objectives and quality
improvement.
Management buy-in and support for the transfer was also found to play a role in the
success of best practice adoption. Hope (2004) found that improving the acceptance and
successful transfer of best practice was predicated on senior management who “practiced what
they preached” (p. 52). Whereas a lack of understanding of the role of management in
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implementing best practices led to an emphasis on the end product rather than the process of
transfer.
There were a number of reported instances of the negative consequences of not having
strong organizational support for the transfer process. For example, in running the online CoP
forum for family planning best practices, Bulkeley (2006) reported that despite activity and high
membership, there were many silent members who chose not to participate in the forum
discussions. Similarly, Dyer & Nobeoka (2000) found the creation of routines for knowledge
sharing within the Toyota network resulted in instances of “free riders”, or members who enjoy
the benefits of the collective attempts at collaboration without taking an active role in
contributing to its establishment and/or maintenance. Zhang & Edwards (2007) reported that
void of strong support from management, “vested interest in the status quo was difficult to
overcome” (p. 2162).
Measuring and monitoring results
Once implemented as best practice, several case studies reported the ongoing
maintenance of best practice through formal measurement and monitoring processes. Zairi &
Whymark (2000) described the measurement process at Royal Mail as one that consisted of
evaluation of six foundational metrics: participation, quality, implementation, cycle-time,
benefit, and overall satisfaction. A before-and-after measurement process allowed Royal Mail to
objectively quantify each best practice and build an effective maintenance program that
prevented the benefits of the best practice from eroding over time. At Xerox, Zairi & Whymark
(2000) found a similar auditing process, in which organizational learning was measured by
plotting the learning of management, employees, and the organization on a spider chart to
identify gaps in best practice adoption. Once a best practice had been adopted by the
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organization, a methodology for change management was established to create an environment
of continuous improvement and refinement of the best practice.
Dyer & Nobeoka (2000) found in their study of Toyota that frequent performance
feedback to suppliers and monitoring whether or not suppliers implemented new knowledge
pushed suppliers to implement best practice.
Future Directions
Reverse diffusion
As Zhang & Edwards (2007) remark, a global economy is allowing MNCs to play a more
innovative role in business today. In particular, they are seen as the future champions for the
transfer of best practices. However, little attention has been paid to date regarding the transfer of
practice from foreign subsidiaries to units or divisions in the country of organizational origin.
Local subsidiaries can play a major role in speeding up the internationalization process for firms
by diffusing local learning back to the host firm. Edwards & Fenner (2004) suggested that
reverse diffusion is more likely to occur if local subsidiaries are given autonomy, and flexibility
against budgetary training targets. However, given the growing strategic importance MNCs will
place on expanding international operations now and in the future, further research in the
nuances of predictor variables that increase the success of reverse diffusion of best practice
seems prudent.
Best Bad Practice?
The collection of case studies used in this literature review provide real-life accounts of
applying exemplar practices in other environments in the hopes of realizing improved
operational performance of both workers and the organization. However, Bulkeley (2006) leaves
us with an ominous concern. She states, “The creation and use of best practice as a means of
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reward and recognition for particular initiatives means that only ‘good news’ stories are
disseminated” (p. 1041). If the goal of best practice transfer is truly to improve performance,
than do examples of “what not to do” also serve a valuable purpose in achieving this goal? Is
there a way to share “glorious failures” in such a way that organizations can provide cautionary
tales to illuminate the common pitfalls and traps people have in accomplishing their tasks? A
more balanced set of learnings that includes “best bad practices” might prove equally if not more
useful for recipients who intend to interpret or selectively adapt the exemplar performance.
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