http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/10909/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21963/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z In this paper we explore the relational dimension of knowledge sharing behavior by proposing a comprehensive theoretical framework for studying knowledge sharing in organizations. This theoretical framework originates from Relational Models Theory (RMT). The RMT distinguishes four relational models: communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching and market pricing. We conducted two case studies and investigated how people use different relational models for their knowledge sharing activities. Based on case studies of a governmental organization and an industrial research group, we describe how the relational context guides knowledge sharing behavior. We show that the willingness to share knowledge is rooted in different relational models and that people only share knowledge when they share similar relational models. Furthermore, effective knowledge sharing takes place when incentive systems and knowledge management systems are appropriated to the relational model in use. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/6770/ 2005-06-17T00:00:00Z Knowledge sharing is of crucial importance for organizations, due to the division of labor and accompanying fragmentation, specialization and distribution of knowledge. It is a means to achieve the organizational objectives. However, organizations have experienced that people do not always share their knowledge with others. Even when people know that they have to share their knowledge and with whom, when they have appropriate cognitive and communicative skills to do so, and also have the right communication technologies at their disposal, knowledge sharing does not always happen. Whereas existing literature has identified a variety of barriers for sharing knowledge, people’s motivations for sharing knowledge within organizations are still not fully understood. These motivations can be investigated by addressing the reciprocal nature of knowledge sharing, as being a social process. This research focuses on different kinds of relations within which knowledge sharing takes place and explains how different relational models influence knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, it explores how the relational models underlying knowledge sharing differ within different types of organizations. Based on two qualitative case studies, this research develops a theoretical and methodological framework for describing and analyzing the situated and relational nature of knowledge sharing. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/179/ 2002-03-08T00:00:00Z This paper explores how different models of sociality can contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of knowledge sharing within different organizational settings. It is asserted that the dynamics of knowledge sharing is organized according to a mix of four relational models distinguished by the relation models theory (Fiske, 1991). It is described how each of these models (communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching and market pricing) have their own implications for understanding and supporting the knowledge sharing process. What model of social relations is in use, is influenced by cultural implementation rules, the kind of activity with its division of labor and the characteristics of knowledge being shared and technologies being used. By knowing according to what relational model(s) knowledge is being shared, one can better understand and consequently better facilitate the organizational and technical conditions for sharing knowledge (and vice versa).