Staffing global marketing positions: What we don't know can make a difference

As the global environment for business becomes more volatile and the need t o institute frame-breaking changes in the conventional wisdom of management increases, global organizational ignorance about the usability of its exis ting knowledge becomes a critical issue. Ignorance in its most simple form is the lack of factual knowledge but unawareness of ignorance is "not knowi ng what one does not know" (i.e., being ignorant of what information would be useful in solving global organizational problems). The focus of the pape r is on the underlying factors that contribute to escalating organizational ignorance as more firms attempt to globalize their operations. In the pape r we examine two types of organizational ignorance: pluralistic and probabi listic which both can be experienced in a global context. In addition, a me ans to reduce the risk of global organizational ignorance through an innova tive global staffing process of combining expatriate and inpatriate manager s is explored.