Knowledge sharing

Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge (i.e. information, skills, or expertise) is exchanged among people, friends, or members of a family, a community (e.g. Wikipedia) or an organization.

Organizations have recognized that knowledge constitutes a valuable intangible asset for creating and sustaining competitive advantages. [1] Knowledge sharing activities are generally supported by knowledge management systems. However, technology constitutes only one of the many factors that affect the sharing of knowledge in organizations, such as organizational culture, trust, and incentives.[2] The sharing of knowledge constitutes a major challenge in the field of knowledge management because some employees tend to resist sharing their knowledge with the rest of the organization.[3][4]

One prominent obstacle is the notion that knowledge is property and ownership thus very important.[5] In order to counteract this, individuals must be reassured that they will receive some type of incentive for what they create.[5] However, Dalkir (2005) identified the risk in knowledge sharing is that individuals are most commonly rewarded for what they know, not what they share.[5] If knowledge is not shared, negative consequences such as isolation and resistance to ideas occur. Shared knowledge offers different viewpoints and possible solutions to problems. To promote knowledge sharing and remove knowledge sharing obstacles, the organizational culture should encourage discovery and innovation.[5] This will result in the creation of organizational culture.

Contents

Knowledge flow

While knowledge is commonly treated as an object, at times it is more appropriate to treat it as a flow.[6] Knowledge as a flow can be related to the concept of tacit knowledge, discovered by Polanyi[7] which was later further explicated by Nonaka [8] [9]. While the difficulty of sharing knowledge resides in the transference of knowledge from one entity to another,[10] [11] it may prove profitable for organisations to acknowledge the difficulties of knowledge transfer and paradoxality of knowledge as such, and adopt new knowledge management strategies accordingly.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Miller, D.; Shamsie, J. (1996). "The resource-based view of the firm in two environments: The Hollywood film studios from 1936 to 1965". Academy of Management Journal (The Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3) 39 (3): 519–543. doi:10.2307/256654. JSTOR 256654. 
  2. ^ Cabrera, A.; Cabrera, E. F. (2002). "Knowledge-sharing Dilemmas". Organization Studies 23 (5): 687–710. doi:10.1177/0170840602235001. 
  3. ^ Ciborra, C.U.; Patriota, G. (1998). "Groupware and teamwork in R&D: limits to learning and innovation". R&D Management 28 (1): 1–10. 
  4. ^ Bock, G. W.; Kim, Y. G. (2002). "Breaking the myths of rewards". Information Resources Management Journal 15 (2): 14–21. 
  5. ^ a b c d Dalkir, K. (2005). Knowledge Management In Theory And Practice. Jordan Hill, Oxford: Elsevier Inc: 132-133
  6. ^ a b Snowden, D. (2002). "Complex acts of knowing: paradox and descriptive self-awareness". Journal of Knowledge Management 6 (2): 100–111. doi:10.1108/13673270210424639. 
  7. ^ Polanyi, M. (2003) [1958]. Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. CRC Press. pp. 428. ISBN 0203442156. 
  8. ^ Nonaka, I. (1994). "A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation". Organization Science (Organization Science, Vol. 5, No. 1) 5 (1): 14–37. doi:10.1287/orsc.5.1.14. JSTOR 2635068. 
  9. ^ Nonaka, I. (2009). "Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion: Controversy and Advancement in Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory". Organization Science 20 (3): 14–37. http://zonecours.hec.ca/documents/H2010-1-2241390.S2-TacitKnowledgeandKnowledgeConversion-ControversyandAdvancementinOrganizationalKnowledgeCreation.pdf. 
  10. ^ Argote, L.; Ingram, P. (2000). "Knowledge Transfer: A Basis for Competitive Advantage in Firms". Organizational behavior and human decision processes 82 (1): 150–169. doi:10.1006/obhd.2000.2893 
  11. ^ Fan, Y. (1998). "The Transfer of Western Management to China: Context, Content and Constraints". Management Learning 29 (2): 201–221. doi:10.1177/1350507698292005 

External links