Title: Skilled Ukrainian migrants in the Polish emerging economy: implications for knowledge management

Authors: Łukasz Sułkowski; Sylwia Przytuła; Anna Maria Migdał

Addresses: Chair of Management of Higher Education Institutions, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland ' Wroclaw University of Economics, Wroclaw, Poland; University of Social Sciences, Warszawa, Poland ' University of Social Sciences, Warszawa, Poland

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyse the implications for knowledge management of the influx of skilled Ukrainian migrants into the Polish emerging economy. We applied a model of four types of knowledge (embrained, embodied, encultured, embedded) in the context of migratory workers. The quantitative research was conducted on a sample of 167 skilled Ukrainian migrants (students). The qualitative study comprised 13 semi-structured interviews with highly skilled Ukrainian migrants working in Poland. We found that skilled Ukrainian employees can fill the employment and competency gap in the emerging Polish economy, and that they face fewer barriers in knowledge transfer due to their high level of adaptation in Poland. This paper presents the implications for knowledge management in the context of global migration and contributes to theory and research in two ways. First, it fills the gap in the literature on the knowledge management of skilled migrants in emerging economies. Second, it bridges the gap between knowledge management and migration concepts.

Keywords: skilled migrants; migration; Ukrainian migrants; Polish emerging economy; knowledge management; knowledge transfer.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2020.109832

European Journal of International Management, 2020 Vol.14 No.5, pp.796 - 816

Received: 31 Dec 2018
Accepted: 19 May 2019
Published online: 25 Sep 2020 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article