Beyond formal skills: the tacit contributions of highly skilled migrants to organizational processes
基于对丹麦跨国公司中46位高技能移民的访谈，研究揭示了隐性技能如何与正式技能互动，支持业务拓展、协作、知识流动等五个组织过程，呼吁人力资源管理超越正式技能定义来识别和支持这些隐性贡献。
While the organizational value of highly skilled migrants (HSMs) is well recognized, less is known about how their tacit skills shaped by international mobility are activated and used at work. Drawing on 46 interviews with HSMs in STEM related roles within market leading multinational companies (MNCs) in Denmark, this study explores how tacit and formal skills interact to support organizational processes. Building on the notion of tacit knowledge as practical, embodied and experiential, we show how highly skilled migrants activate such knowledge through tacit skills, which play a significant role in five organizational processes: expanding business opportunities, sustaining collaboration, fostering cross-unit knowledge flows, overcoming communication barriers and identifying inclusivity blind spots. Rather than claiming direct causal effects on organizational success, we show how HSMs contribute to building sociocultural intelligence, improving knowledge management and strengthening competitiveness. Our findings call for HRM systems - such as hiring, evaluation and development - to move beyond definitions of expertise based on formal skills and to identify and support the tacit skills that HSMs bring to organizations.