Knowledge Sharing & Organisational Culture

Many researchers have been carried out to identify barriers behind knowledge sharing and organisational culture has often been one of the major factors. Apart from this, trust level amongst operational level has been another reason that can promote or demote knowledge sharing. Zawawi classified knowledge sharing barriers into three categories (Vajjhala & Vucetic, 2013):

1. Individual factors – based on individual beliefs and perceptions.
2. Technological factors – unavailability of resources that would affect knowledge sharing
3. Organisational factors – lack of clear leadership and communication within the organisation, leading to demotivation within the team.

Edvardsosn emphasized knowledge sharing at a strategic level rather than the operational level to make it more effective (Vajjhala & Vucetic, 2013).

As the world is changing, the organizations are evolving from the traditional, individualistic set up towards learning organization and one with more focus on sociology, psychology, culture, values etc. (Schein, 1996) So what makes a good learning organization (Nevis, et al., 2009)?

• Well-developed core competencies
• An attitude which supports knowledge management
• Ability to regenerate

Vision and culture are often considered as ‘soft’ factors in knowledge management. While vision provides a sense of direction for the organisation, culture is the way of doing things in a firm. For example, it would be hard-pressed to find a person who hasn't heard of the search engine that bears the name – Google. One reason for this image is the culture behind the organisation, Google values its employees. They are always testing to find ways to optimize their people, both in terms of happiness and performance. The vision is set to achieve new heights; rapid innovation. This is what leads to a successful learning organisation (Rodrigo, 2016).

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