Bringing knowledge home : How Swedish public organizations manage knowledge of employees with temporary assignments at multilateral organizations

This study looks into how representatives and staff seconded by Swedish public organizations to multilateral organizations like the United Nations, share knowledge and experience gained through these temporary assignments, and how this is capitalized on by their home organizations. The qualitative study is based on 11 interviews, in which the respondents provided their views on how knowledge was shared before, during and after their assignments. The results show that all respondents are motivated to share specific technical expertise as well as insights on the working processes within the host organization, through both formal and informal means. All respondents also describe their experience as contributing to both their personal and professional development. However, the majority of respondents do not feel that their home organizations take advantage of the knowledge gained, and remain unaffected and unchanged in their way of working and through their organizational outputs.