Factors Impacting Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

Knowledge sharing is the deliberate act in which knowledge is made reusable through its transfer from one party to another. It is considered one of the main pillars of knowledge management. For a knowledge management initiative to succeed, a knowledge-sharing culture needs to be created and nurtured within the organisation. Since knowledge is power and no one is willing to give it away freely, there is a need to create a knowledge-sharing environment which takes into account the social and economic factors that influence knowledge sharing. In this paper, we look at the existing knowledge-sharing frameworks and propose a new one that takes into consideration the social and economic issues that might affect knowledge sharing within the organisation. The framework attributes the impact to five factors: the actors participating in the knowledge-sharing activity, the knowledge being shared, the channel used, the organisation concerned and the broader environmental factors. Specific barriers for each of the five sources are suggested.