Resourcing expertise: How existing schemas and communication processes shape the meaning of expert work in a global organization

This research draws on a resourcing perspective to challenge the assumption that expertise should be conceptualized as an asset with consistent value for organizations, and offers an alternative view that expertise is enacted through communicative processes that create resources-in-use. Analysis of the introduction of an offshoring center offering potential expert work in a global automotive company revealed that the meaning of this potential resource was shaped by existing schemas regarding the role of expertise within the organization. Ongoing communication among workers enacted the expertise in fundamentally divergent ways, leading organizational members to characterize offshore center workers as either ineffective contractors or supportive collaborators. Findings extend ongoing discussions in organizational communication by demonstrating expertise as emergent in communication among workers.