Abstracts - Earli

that nourish ties to knowledge cultures. This presentation aims to report on work-in-progress andinvite conference participants to reflect on some of the key problems.Attachment to work and continuing learning as influences on individuals’ career stability andcareer transitionsJenny Bimrose, University of Warwick, United KingdomSally-Anne Barnes, University of Warwick, United KingdomAlan Brown, University of Warwick, United KingdomThis paper draws upon narrative interviews with over 100 individuals who work in health care,engineering, IT or telecommunications; or have completed mid-career professional development;or are struggling to maintain a work-life balance as they are in permanent relationships but theirwork involves long-distance commuting; or have accessed adult guidance services. From thesedata sources it was possible to construct ‘strategic biographies’ of people who were either in work,had been made redundant, had taken a ‘career break’ or who were otherwise in transition. We willpresent some thematic findings but will also use individual cases in order to exemplify differentpatterns of behaviour in the development of work-related learning, careers and identities. Therelationship between interviewees and their work-related roles can be represented as patterns ofstrategic action in their patterns of relationships, orientation and adaptive response to work. Weexamined two dimensions of interviewees’ response to challenges of development of theirlearning, careers and identities. The first is the extent of their attachment to work (whether theyidentify with their work or offer more constrained commitment) and the second is the nature of theopportunities they had for, and their approach to, learning and development. Interestingly a strongattachment, or adjustment, to a current work role could act as a career ‘anchor’ from which it waspossible for individuals to continue their career development (e.g. through willingness to engage in‘upskilling’) or else as a ‘chain’ that restricted their perceived freedom of action (e.g. throughunwillingness to engage in substantive ‘upskilling’ or ‘reskilling’). Guidance often helpsindividuals manage career transitions by helping clients view their current skill sets as ‘anchors’that can be taken with them on a journey and utilised in a new setting, rather than as ‘chains’ thathold them close to their current roles."Expatriates’ " networking and knowledge transferLeena Salminen, Turku University, FinlandErno Lehtinen, Turku University, FinlandABSTRACT "Expatriates’" networking and knowledge transfer In the study the aim is to describe,analyse and explain how knowledge can be transferred in an organization, how employees (herecalled expatriates) build networks in a new environment (abroad), how much they use theirprevious network, how networking activities influence in expertise building, and how culturalchange affects to knowledge transfer and personal networks. Theoretical background is based onsocio-cognitive approach to expertise, theories of expertise, network theories and knowledgemanagement. Empirical research was made in one company. Participants consists of 105 Nokiaemployees from Finland who have left for an international assignment during years 2000-2001 andarrived back during years 2001-2006. Most of them have worked abroad for two years. Hostcountries have been Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Hong Kong, Italy,Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, United Kingdom and United States. Three differentresearch methods were used: pre and post questionnaires (n=105), interviews and egocentricnetwork analyses (n=19). Participants for the network analyses group were selected after the prequestionnaire, with criteria like host country, home site, gender, job profile, function of the– 452 –