Canton of Neuchâtel — Managing through influence: how can rare expertise be passed on without making the expert indispensable?
In the canton of Neuchâtel, microtechnology, watchmaking and microelectronics combine demanding industrial cycles, scarce expertise and persistent challenges in retaining technical talent. For SHR — Swiss Human Resources’ « Manager par influence » programme, this raises a useful question: how can managers support knowledge transfer without creating permanent dependence on the person who knows?
What the literature establishes
Gabriel Szulanski (1996, Strategic Management Journal) examines barriers to transferring best practices within firms. His findings highlight, among other factors, difficult relationships, ambiguity about the causes of success and the recipient’s capacity to absorb knowledge. Interpreting a difficult transfer simply as a refusal to share is therefore inadequate.
The mechanism: learning builds on existing knowledge
Wesley M. Cohen and Daniel A. Levinthal (1990, Administrative Science Quarterly) develop the concept of absorptive capacity: recognising the value of new knowledge, assimilating it and using it depend in part on prior knowledge. Their analysis concerns organisations and does not directly test mentoring between colleagues. It nevertheless offers a useful managerial hypothesis: an expert demonstration may remain difficult to apply if the recipient’s prerequisites have not been established.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that the expert simply needs to explain more clearly or write another procedure. The distinction matters: documenting an action guarantees neither an understanding of when it is appropriate nor the ability to recognise an unusual situation. Managing through influence here means negotiating learning conditions with the specialist and their manager, rather than continually asking for the specialist’s time. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence does not allow us to promise
These studies do not demonstrate that a particular knowledge-transfer arrangement would retain specialists in Neuchâtel or reduce production defects. The first examines transfers within firms; the second offers a theoretical framework informed by empirical analyses, without evaluating the SHR programme. In practice, counting mentoring hours or documents produced measures effort, not acquired autonomy.
A practical check in Neuchâtel
In a hypothetical microtechnology workshop in Neuchâtel, a manager could agree with a specialist in a particular equipment adjustment, the specialist’s line manager and a colleague on a knowledge-transfer trial involving one clearly bounded operation, outside production or under quality supervision. Following an assessment of prerequisites and an explained demonstration, the colleague would perform the operation on a comparable case, using acceptance and stopping criteria established beforehand. Over a defined period, recording the proportion of compliant trials completed without expert intervention, alongside requests for help and their reasons, would help distinguish autonomy, learning needs and legitimate escalation. This check would give work within « Manager par influence » a concrete focus: negotiating the protected time and responsibilities needed for knowledge transfer, without treating a local trial as proof of general effectiveness. To go further: explore the Influence Management training in Neuchâtel in the canton of Neuchâtel, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Influence Management in Neuchâtel
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