Meet Enno Siemsen, 2004 Juran Fellow

Why do some employees share knowledge while others do not?

“For the vast majority of companies, this question remains an enigma—a black box,” 2004 Juran Fellow Enno Siemsen says. “Employee knowledge sharing, and the converse knowledge hoarding, impacts how effectively an organization can compete in today’s turbulent environment.”

As a Juran Fellow, Siemsen applied quality principles to his research on factors that influence employee knowledge sharing. The Juran Fellowship program also offered constructive feedback and an opportunity to network with other academics and practitioners in the quality field. Siemsen was working on his dissertation at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill when his advisor informed him of the Juran Fellowship program.

“For me, the most important thing was the feedback I received from reviewers,” Siemsen said. “The responses were very constructive and well thought out.”

Traditional dissertation research typically explores one function in a business. The Juran Fellowship allowed Siemsen to see the connection between his topic and the success of the larger enterprise.

“It impacted my thinking,” Siemsen said. “Mostly, I’ve had a change in values to believe that delivering high quality goods and experiences to customers is just as critical as the value of business that’s being delivered to the shareholder.” His curiosity about his doctoral subject had been fueled by on-the-ground experience and academic research.

Siemsen began his graduate studies in Germany and worked part-time as an intern at Roland Berger & Partner GmbH Strategic Management Consultancy, Germany’s largest management consultancy.

There, Siemsen gained experience with the organization’s internal knowledge program, and he eventually wrote his diploma-thesis on the subject. His studies then led him to work as a production manager for a consumer electronics production plant in Shenzhen, China, before he sought his doctorate.

Siemsen’s dissertation has resulted in a number of papers, many related to quality management. Now in his third year as an assistant professor of business administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s College of Business, Siemsen said the fellowship has also impacted his teaching.

“All of the classes—undergraduate or master’s—that I teach include some aspects of quality,” he said. “In my MBA class, the focus is more on quality strategy, while the undergrad sections include lectures on Six Sigma.”