Knowledge Sharing within Organizations

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.

Niels-Ingvar was born on October 7th 1975 in Eelde, the Netherlands. After finishing grammar school (Praedinius Gymnasium) in 1993, Niels-Ingvar started to study Business Administration at the University of Groningen. As a student assistant, he has lectured and supervised first year students Business Administration in the course ‘Empirical Research Skills’. During his study period he followed postgraduate courses in strategic management and innovation management at the Department of Management Studies at Brunel University in London. After his graduation in 1998, he has been a Ph.D. candidate at the department of Decision and Information Sciences at the Erasmus University Rotterdam / Rotterdam School of Management till 2002. Niels-Ingvar gave lectures and supervised graduation students with their master’s project. He presented papers at the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (best paper nomination), at the 3rd European Conference on Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities in Athens and 4th in Barcelona, and participated in the Doctoral Consortium of the International Conference on Information Systems in New Orleans. His research interests include knowledge networks, social relations, knowledge sharing, organizational change and strategic management. Currently, Niels-Ingvar Boer is working for the Strategic Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in the Netherlands, at the Secretary General’s Office dealing with strategic knowledge development.

Het delen van kennis is cruciaal voor organisaties, door de toegenomen arbeidsdeling en bijbehorende fragmentatie, specialisatie en spreiding van kennis. Het is een middel voor organisaties om producten en diensten voort te brengen, die niet door individuele werknemers kunnen worden voortgebracht. De praktijk wijst echter uit dat het delen van kennis binnen organisaties niet vanzelfsprekend is. Ook al zijn mensen cognitief en fysiek in staat om kennis te delen, weten ze bovendien dat ze kennis moeten delen en met wie, worden ze niet gehinderd door bijvoorbeeld taalproblemen en hebben ze ook nog eens passende informatie en communicatie technologieën tot hun beschikking, dan nog is het niet vanzelfsprekend dat mensen hun kennis delen. Hoewel de literatuur verschillende barrières voor het delen van kennis heeft geïdentificeerd, bestaat er nog steeds onvoldoende inzicht in de motivaties van mensen om kennis te delen. Deze motivaties kunnen worden onderzocht door het delen van kennis als sociaal proces te beschouwen dat fundamenteel relationeel van aard is. Dit onderzoek focust op verschillende typen relaties waarbinnen kennis wordt gedeeld en verklaart hoe verschillende relationele modellen het delen van kennis beïnvloeden. Bovendien geeft het aan hoe de relationele modellen achter kennis delen verschillen binnen uiteenlopende typen organisatiesettings. Op basis van twee kwalitatieve case studies ontwikkelt dit onderzoek een theoretisch en methodologisch raamwerk om de contextafhankelijke en relationele aard van kennis delen te beschrijven en te analyseren.