The Culture of Sharing Knowledge: The Road to Organizational Success (original) (raw)

Organizational culture and knowledge sharing: critical success factors

Journal of Knowledge Management, 2007

Purpose-This research aims at investigating the role of certain factors in organizational culture in the success of knowledge sharing. Such factors as interpersonal trust, communication between staff, information systems, rewards and organization structure play an important role in defining the relationships between staff and in turn, providing possibilities to break obstacles to knowledge sharing. This research is intended to contribute in helping businesses understand the essential role of organizational culture in nourishing knowledge and spreading it in order to become leaders in utilizing their know-how and enjoying prosperity thereafter. Design/methodology/approach-The conclusions of this study are based on interpreting the results of a survey and a number of interviews with staff from various organizations in Bahrain from the public and private sectors. Findings-The research findings indicate that trust, communication, information systems, rewards and organization structure are positively related to knowledge sharing in organizations. Research limitations/implications-The authors believe that further research is required to address governmental sector institutions, where organizational politics dominate a role in hoarding knowledge, through such methods as case studies and observation. Originality/value-Previous research indicated that the Bahraini society is influenced by traditions of household, tribe, and especially religion of the Arab and Islamic world. These factors define people's beliefs and behaviours, and thus exercise strong influence in the performance of business organizations. This study is motivated by the desire to explore the role of the national organizational culture on knowledge sharing, which may be different from previous studies conducted abroad.

The impact of organizational culture on knowledge sharing

International Review, 2016

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between knowledge management and organizational culture, adopting the view of knowledge. Understanding how different cultural types are associated with specific knowledge management should shed light on how the relationship between organizational culture and knowledge management is manifested in the choices of organizations. For this research, the quantitative research design will be used. A survey questionnaire will be employed in achieving the objectives of this research. Results indicate that successful KM application should go beyond the operational side into social, human and organizational aspects to create individual commitment towards KM implementation. This discussion also emphasizes the importance of the collective knowledge and knowledge network concepts on the organizational level.

Company Culture, Knowledge Sharing and Organizational Performance. The Employee's Perspective

Knowledge sharing, as a basic prerequisite for knowledge creation, is a dynamic social process characterized by profound human interactions. The process of knowledge sharing can be supported by organizational culture which is a set of values and norms giving identity to each enterprise. As a valuable element of intellectual capital, organizational culture contributes to achieving strategic business goals. The purpose of this article is to explore the impact of organizational culture, and its axiological, and behavioral dimensions, on knowledge sharing and company performance from the employee's perspective. Human resources are the most critical assets for organizational performance. Their utility under the conditions of network organization depends on to a very high degree of the organizational culture that enhances loyalty, commitment and job satisfaction of employees, encourages knowledge sharing, and as a result, improves the overall organizational performance. The article aims at better understanding the relation between organizational culture dimensions and knowledge sharing and company performance from the employee point of view. For this purpose, the authors conducted a study among Polish employees with different roles and experiences across different industries. The data collected during the study has been analyzed using the equal structural modelling method. Introduction During the past forty years, organizational culture has been a subject of growing interest of researchers and practitioners who analyze this phenomenon through the prism of different perspectives. The concept of organizational culture usually refers to the organizational structure which is embedded in values, beliefs, and assumptions that serve as a guide for its members. Each organization is characterized by a specific organizational culture. There are both cultures that contribute to the effective functioning of the company and those that hamper its effectiveness. It is generally acknowledged that organizational culture is an essential factor of organizational performance and a source of sustainable competitive advantage under the conditions of the contemporary economy (Lee and Gaur 2013; Idris, Wahab and Jaapar, 2015). Thanks to the suitably shaped organizational culture the members of a given organization can work in harmony with others to achieve some shared goals. Moreover, organizational culture is more often regarded as one of the basic prerequisites for the generation of innovation that is perceived as a social process (Büschgens, Bausch and Balkin, 2013; Lin, Donough, Lin and Lin, 2013). It may encourage or deter knowledge sharing and learning which are decisive for innovation. For instance, symptoms such as knowledge hoarding, apprehension about failures, and the " not-invented-here " syndrome are hostile to knowledge sharing. In turn, incentives related to knowledge management efforts are crucial in creating a knowledge sharing culture (Sundaresan and Zhang, 2013). The article aims to explore the impact of different dimensions of organizational culture on knowledge sharing and organizational performance. Despite the importance given to the organizational culture as a factor which contributes to company performance and competitiveness, empirical research in this scope is still necessary. Taking it into consideration, the identification of which cultural dimensions are crucial influencers is required to easy recognise fast changes in business environment and have the ability to adapt to them. In opinion of authors, the results of empirical research based on the case of Polish enterprises certainly enriched the existing knowledge on the company culture and its mutual links

Knowledge Creating and Sharing Corporate Culture Framework

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013

Most knowledge-and particularly know-how-tends to be implicit, difficult to communicate in an easy form, and sometimes impossible to document, this is the tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge provides competitive advantage for future successful companies. Making tacit knowledge available to others should be the central activity of the knowledge and innovation creating organization. A prerequisite for the evolution of tacit knowledge is an open culture in an organization, interaction with others. So, knowledge sharing is the fundamental means through which employees can contribute to knowledge creating, innovation, and ultimately the competitive advantage of the organization. But there are some barriers in the creation and sharing knowledge so that they become critical processes in corporate knowledge management. This paper proposes a framework approach, to integrate creation and sharing knowledge process, based on the resolution of the main walls which exist within both process, and which the company can exploit using different tools. The expected benefits of this approach include personal satisfaction and development, rationalization of decision-making processes by making them explicit, increase productivity, increasing knowledge creation and sharing culture and innovation.

INSTILLING A KNOWLEDGE-SHARING CULTURE

All organizations have cultures i.e., the sets of norms and values which collectively guide the behavior of their employees. Culture is neither good nor bad but may foster values and behaviors that support or impede certain organizational objectives. In modern organizations, the increasing interdependencies between jobs and the information explosion resulting from interconnectivity and rapid change, mean that many people have pieces of solutions and no one knows it all . Therefore, cultures which inhibit knowledge-sharing are widely-held to be significant barriers to creating and leveraging knowledge assets. Instilling a knowledge-sharing culture is thus a necessary prerequisite for companies that believe that it is a significant way to differentiate themselves. To explore the characteristics of a knowledge-sharing culture and how one can be nurtured and developed, the authors, in conjunction with Queen's University's Centre for Knowledge-Based Enterprises, convened a day-long focus group of practicing senior knowledge managers from a variety of industries in the United States and Canada. This paper combines their ideas with research from the academic and practitioner literature to create an overview of the issues and practices that are most important to developing a knowledge-sharing culture.

Why Organisational Culture Drives Knowledge Sharing?

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

Knowledge management is an important factor that can influence the success of organizational operations. This makes it apparent as well that there is a need to establish knowledge sharing within an organization. This proposed study outlines a planned inquiry towards the investigation of how organizational culture can lead into knowledge sharing behavior, specific to the context of Malaysian organizations. Through the use of semi-structured interviews and empirical evidences from relevant literatures, the author expects to find the relationship between the different components of organizational culture and knowledge sharing behavior.

Organizational culture and knowledge sharing: Empirical evidence from service organizations

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between organizational cultural elements and knowledge sharing. This is a quantitative research by nature. A questionnaire is derived from previous studies. The survey covered seven service organizations in Bangladesh. Regression was adopted to test hypotheses. Out of the four independent variables, trust, communication between staff, and leadership were found to have a positive and significant relationship with knowledge sharing. A surprising finding of this study is that reward system does not have any impact on knowledge sharing. It is reasonable here to conclude that knowledge sharing can be successful in the service industry in Bangladesh with given emphasis on trust, communication between staff and leadership.

Knowledge sharing and organisational culture: The hidden moderator for competitive advantage

International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies, 2018

This research assesses how organisations' cultural values moderate employee perceptions of their knowledge sharing capability (KSC) for their perceptions of achieving knowledge sharing success (KSS). Specifically, it seeks to examine how organisational culture (OC) moderates the relationship between employees' KSC and KSS. Hierarchical regression analysis was utilised to analyse survey data of a sample of 270 employees from four Malaysian Information Technology (IT) organisations. Employees who rate themselves high in KSC exhibit higher levels of KSS, when the organisation nourishes high values of expertise and formal collaboration. The relationship between KSC and KSS is weaker when either formal collaboration or expertise is perceived to be lower. This research represents an early work on knowledge sharing that examines how employees' KSC within different cultural value orientations respond to KSS. It discusses implications for human resource management (HRM) practices.

The Relationship between Organizational Culture and Knowledge Sharing in a GCC Company

2016

This research seeks to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and Knowledge Sharing in a Gulf Co-operative Council Company (GCCC). A questionnaire was used to collect data from selected departments in the company. The cultural variables that have been investigated were trust, communication between staff, leadership, and reward system. Results of the study showed a positive relationship between each of organizational culture factors (trust, communication between staff, leadership, and reward system) and knowledge sharing.