Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation for experience grounded tacit knowledge sharing in Chinese software organisations

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify and explain the role of individuals’ awareness and motivation in facilitating knowledge sharing (KS) in the real world of practice, as well as to establish areas of convergence between theory and practice that can be of use to both academics and practitioners involved in knowledge intensive organisations. Design/methodology/approach – This study used Grounded Theory (GT) as an inductive methodology to collect, analyse and interpret data from multiple case-studies. 44 participants from Chinese software organisations were selected on the basis of their role in SW design and development and were interviewed using a semi-structured interview script. The data analysis followed a Straussian approach to coding, which consists of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. The analysis focused on the impact of individuals’ awareness and motivation to share knowledge. Findings – The findings of this research show that the motivation for KS – a time consuming and demanding activity – is indeed related to awareness by managers and developers of the benefits of KS in their professional practice. Practitioners shared their experiences and tacit knowledge with others, partly because it was required by their companies, but also because they have a sound awareness of the need to share knowledge both inside and outside their organisations. Research limitations/implications – As a typical social science inductive study, this research is bounded by the context in which the theory proposed emerged from. Further research should be conducted into a richer variety of organisational and national contexts, as suggested by good theoretical sampling practice, which could provide further insights or contrasts. Originality/value – Despite a number of theoretical propositions found in the literature, there is a clear lack of implementation strategies and models that explain the role of awareness and motivation in facilitating KS in the world of practice. This issue of applicability of theoretical propositions is now recognised as one of the fundamental key issues in KS. This study provides new and practice grounded insights in this area and is of interest to both practitioners and theoreticians as it explains and bridges the individuals’ awareness and motivation for tacit KS

Kepemimpinan Karismatik dalam Perspektif Karyawan UMKM: dari Motivasi Intrinsik hingga Tacit Knowledge Sharing

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji pengaruh kepemimpinan karismatik terhadap motivasi intrinsic dan tacit knowledge sharing. Penelitian ini mengadopsi metode simple random sampling dengan 85 sampel karyawan dari lima perusahaan UMKM di Banten. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kepemimpinan karismatik memiliki pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap motivasi intrinsic dan tacit knowledge sharing. Penelitian ini dapat membuka jalan untuk meningkatkan kesiapan karyawan UMKM dalam menghadapi era revolusi industri 4.0

An investigation of knowledge transfer in information systems (IS) outsourcing

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Inter-organisational knowledge transfer is of central interest both as an academic topic and in business practice. However, despite the attention given to the importance of this subject from different perspectives in various contexts, little is known about how knowledge is transferred from vendors to clients in information systems (IS) outsourcing. This research attempts to address this apparent theoretical and empirical deficiency by providing a deeper understanding and more holistic analysis of the key factors which facilitate or inhibit knowledge transfer success in IS outsourcing. This study employed a qualitative, multiple case study approach in the interpretive paradigm. Data was collected mainly from the IS departments of three public sector organisations in Oman. Oman was chosen as the context for the study due to its rapid growth in recent years and the opportunity to consider the many major IS outsourcing projects which have been undertaken by its public sector. Through semi-structured interviews, this study explored the perspectives of the internal IS staff on their experience of knowledge transfer and learning from vendors through various IS outsourcing projects. Written and electronic documentations as well as non-participant observations also served as important triangulation and complementary sources in understanding the phenomenon being studied and as means of gaining additional perspectives and further insights on key issues. The empirical evidence demonstrated that there are five sets of factors which facilitate or inhibit knowledge transfer success in IS outsourcing. These are: knowledge (knowledge tacitness and knowledge complexity), client (learning intent, absorptive capacity and motivation), vendor (vendor capability, vendor credibility and vendor openness), relationship (relationship quality, relationship duration, relationship governance and organisational distance) and knowledge transfer mechanisms (formal and informal). The findings of this study contributed and extended the growing body of research on IS outsourcing by developing a novel, holistic conceptual framework which examined five sets of factors that impact knowledge transfer success. Additionally, it provided prescriptive value for practitioners seeking to realise efficient and effective knowledge transfer in IS outsourcing

Identification and classification of shareable tacit knowledge associated with experience in the Chinese software industry sector

The study reported in this thesis aimed to provide an ontology of professional activities in the software industry that require and enable the acquisition of experience and that, in turn, is the basis for tacit knowledge creation. The rationale behind the creation of such an ontology was based on the need to externalise this tacit knowledge and then record such externalisations so that these can be shared and disseminated across organisations through electronic records management. The research problem here is to conciliate highly theoretical principles associated with tacit knowledge and the ill-defined and quasi-colloquial concept of experience into a tool that can be used by more technical and explicit knowledge minded practitioners of electronic records management. The ontology produced and proposed here provides exactly such a bridge, by identifying what aspects of professional and personal experience should be captured and organising these aspects into an explicit classification that can be used to capture the tacit knowledge and codify it into explicit knowledge. Since such ontologies are always closely related to actual contexts of practice, the researcher decided to choose her own national context of China, where she had worked before and had good guarantees of industrial access. This study used a multiple case-study Straussian Grounded Theory inductive approach. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews in order to get direct interaction with practitioners in the field and capture individuals opinions and perceptions, as well as interpret individuals understandings associated with these processes. The interviews were conducted in three different and representative types of company (SMEs, State Owned and Large Private) in an attempt to capture a rich variety of possible contexts in the SW sector in a Chinese context. Data analysis was conducted according to coding the procedures advocated by Grounded Theory, namely: open, axial and selective coding. Data collection and analysis was conducted until the emergent theory reached theoretical saturation. The theory generated identified 218 different codes out of 797 representative quotations. These codes were grouped and organised into a category hierarchy that includes 6 main categories and 31 sub-categories, which are, in turn, represented in the ontology proposed. This emergent theory indicates in a very concise manner that experienced SW development practitioners in China should be able to understand the nature and value of experience in the SW industry, effectively communicate with other stake holders in the SW development process, be able and motivated to actively engage with continuous professional development, be able to share knowledge with peers and the profession at large, effectively work on projects and exhibit a sound professional attitude both internally to their own company and externally to customers, partners and even competitors. This basic theory was then further analysed by applying selective coding. This resulted in a main theory centred on Working in Projects, which was clearly identified as the core activity in the SW Industry reflecting its design and development nature. Directly related with the core category, three other significant categories were identified as enablers: Communication, Knowledge Sharing and Individual Development. Additionally, Understanding the Nature of Experience in the SW Industry and Professional Attitude were identified as drivers for the entire process of reflection, experience acquisition and tacit knowledge construction by the individual practitioners. Finally, as an integral part of any inductive process of research, the final stage in this study was to position the emerged theory in the body of knowledge. This resulted in the understanding that the theory presented in this study bridges two extremely large bodies of literature: employability skills and competencies. Both of these bodies of literature put their emphasis in explicit knowledge concerning skills and competencies that are defined so that they can be measured and assessed. The focus of the theory proposed in this thesis on experience and resulting acquisition of tacit knowledge allows a natural link between the employability skills and competencies in the SW industry that was hitherto lacking in the body of knowledge. The ontology proposed is of interest to academics in the areas of knowledge management, electronic records management and information systems. The same ontology may be of interest to human resources practitioners to select and develop experienced personnel as well as knowledge and information professionals in organisations

Knowledge Transfer Preferences of Expert Employees Nearing Retirement

Managers of organizations face increasing rates of retiring Baby Boomers as that generation begins to leave the workforce. Some managers of organizations have no formalized knowledge transfer strategies in place to reduce the lost productivity and negative financial effects of these retiring employees. The purpose of this single-site case study was to explore the knowledge transfer preferences of expert scientific support employees nearing retirement at a United States national laboratory in northern California. Understanding the preferences of employees nearing retirement may allow managers to affect the business practice of promoting organizational learning by implementing strategies that catalyze knowledge transfer from expert employees. Systems theory, expectancy theory, knowledge management theory, and organizational learning theory concepts provided the framework. Semistructured interviews with 24 expert scientific support employees provided data, which were subsequently coded and analyzed using the pawing technique. The analysis of themes revealed mentoring to be the preferred method of knowledge transfer, the barriers to knowledge transfer and multiple types of knowledge transfer, and the impact of lack of knowledge transfer on productivity. Public research organization managers implementing effective knowledge transfer programs may increase the potential for scientific discoveries affecting social change through increased prosperity of citizens who could benefit from the derivative advances in energy research

EXPLORING KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND KNOWLEDGE HIDING OF SKILLED EMPLOYEES IN A SMALL CHINESE MANUFACTURING FAMILY BUSINESS

When it comes to the knowledge management field, knowledge resource, particularly tacit knowledge, is a primary contributing factor to the survival of the small family business. However, a limited amount of knowledge management and family business literature has simultaneously investigated knowledge sharing and hiding behaviours. Self-determination theory (SDT) is an extensively applied theory to probe knowledge sharing behaviour through diverse individual motivations but few in knowledge hiding areas. Therefore, this study explores knowledge sharing and hiding behaviours concurrently in the small Chinese manufacturing family business based on SDT. This thesis employs an interpretivism philosophy, and data was collected by multi-methods of document analysis and semi-structured interviews from twenty-two participants in a single case-study company. The case study was a typical case of the methodology of the single case-study selection. The success of the selected company depended on the employees’ knowledge innovation, and the local government accredited it as ‘provincially-excellent learning organisation’ due to its training and learning programmes. The participants were selected by the owner-manager and human resource (HR) manager utilising a purposive sampling technique. Data was analysed through template analysis, and three themes arose from the key concepts in the literature, and five sub-themes were sourced from the final template: ‘perceptions of tacit knowledge’, ‘methods of knowledge sharing and hiding’, and ‘reasons for sharing and hiding’. The findings highlighted that the tacit knowledge of the skilled employees had distinctively experience-based characteristics. This knowledge was often shared through formal and informal approaches, whereas it was hidden through playing-dumb and rationalised methods. The occurrence of knowledge sharing and hiding was mainly driven by diverse corporate characteristics and individual motivations, even if some reasons for both behaviours were the same (intimate rapports) or correlated (trust and distrust; confidence and fears of being replaced by others). The key findings from the data suggested that knowledge hiding was mainly triggered by the unfair issues between the family and non-family employees. The study makes three valuable theoretical contributions to family business and knowledge management literature. It contributes to extending understanding of the knowledge sharing iv and hiding behaviours in the context of the small family business. This project helps address a gap in the knowledge management literature by investigating a new conceptualisation of the simultaneous enactment of knowledge sharing and hiding in business settings. Through analysing the findings, it has developed a framework to understand knowledge sharing and hiding simultaneously. The study extends an in-depth understanding of knowledge sharing and hiding behaviours simultaneously through exploring different types of motivations and the processes of motivational quality changes and external-regulation internalisation based on SDT. Through analysing the corporate context of the small family business and individual motivations, the findings have the opportunities to influence the decision-makers in the family businesses to become mindful of the significance of using formal and informal approaches for knowledge sharing and to consider using the long-term and short-term methods to motivate people to share knowledge or reduce the possibilities of knowledge hiding

Exploring factors affecting knowledge sharing at national institute for crime prevention and reintegration of offenders in Pietermaritzburg.

Master of Commerce in Management, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2016.Fast changes in business and innovation are driving organisations to learn and adapt to changes at an extraordinary rate. Most of them understand that unless information gathering and exchange happens quicker they will not have a competitive advantage, as they will be at risk of losing the significant resource of knowledge through knowledge erosion. This study is about exploring factors influencing knowledge sharing in a non-governmental organisation called the National Institute for Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO). This is a qualitative study where interviews were used as a data collection technique and thematic analysis used as a data analysis method. Explorative research design was used in this study to explore a variety of factors impacting knowledge sharing. The targeted population was the employees of NICRO and the purposive sampling method was used to select a sample. The sample size consisted of five employees with different professions and roles in the organisation. The findings indicated that there were a variety of individual, organisational as well as technological factors which influenced knowledge sharing at NICRO. Individual factors such as awareness, personality, altruism and self-efficiency were key determinants of knowledge sharing in the organisation studied. The trust and rewards system was a predominant organisational factor that impacted employees’ behaviour with respect to sharing knowledge, followed by factors such as organisational culture, leadership and organisational structure. The study also ascertained that technological factors played a significant role in influencing knowledge sharing in the studied organisation. On the basis of the research findings, the study recommended that the management of NICRO review and improve their reward system in order to encourage employees to engage in knowledge sharing. The study also recommended that employer and employees reestablish a trustworthy relationship among themselves in order to create favourable conditions for sharing knowledge

An investigation of knowledge transfer in information systems (IS) outsourcing

Inter-organisational knowledge transfer is of central interest both as an academic topic and in business practice. However, despite the attention given to the importance of this subject from different perspectives in various contexts, little is known about how knowledge is transferred from vendors to clients in information systems (IS) outsourcing. This research attempts to address this apparent theoretical and empirical deficiency by providing a deeper understanding and more holistic analysis of the key factors which facilitate or inhibit knowledge transfer success in IS outsourcing. This study employed a qualitative, multiple case study approach in the interpretive paradigm. Data was collected mainly from the IS departments of three public sector organisations in Oman. Oman was chosen as the context for the study due to its rapid growth in recent years and the opportunity to consider the many major IS outsourcing projects which have been undertaken by its public sector. Through semi-structured interviews, this study explored the perspectives of the internal IS staff on their experience of knowledge transfer and learning from vendors through various IS outsourcing projects. Written and electronic documentations as well as non-participant observations also served as important triangulation and complementary sources in understanding the phenomenon being studied and as means of gaining additional perspectives and further insights on key issues. The empirical evidence demonstrated that there are five sets of factors which facilitate or inhibit knowledge transfer success in IS outsourcing. These are: knowledge (knowledge tacitness and knowledge complexity), client (learning intent, absorptive capacity and motivation), vendor (vendor capability, vendor credibility and vendor openness), relationship (relationship quality, relationship duration, relationship governance and organisational distance) and knowledge transfer mechanisms (formal and informal). The findings of this study contributed and extended the growing body of research on IS outsourcing by developing a novel, holistic conceptual framework which examined five sets of factors that impact knowledge transfer success. Additionally, it provided prescriptive value for practitioners seeking to realise efficient and effective knowledge transfer in IS outsourcing.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Knowledge Sharing for Professional Growth: Views from Academic Librarians in Zimbabwe

Knowledge sharing activities are indicators for professional growth. It consists of inconceivable diverse and complex patterns through which professionals gain more from each other. This type of knowledge sharing experience is essential for professional growth. Ordinarily, except engage in certain activities, professionals do not benefit much from each other. The process that unfold in what the professionals know best is through the process of sharing tacit knowledge. Librarianship as a profession is at its critical point where issues to contend with emerges, based on current trends in library and information sciences. The dynamics that surround users’ diverse information needs and technological changes have become critical factors to consider. Librarians in the academic environment in Zimbabwe have no option than to tap into the newly launched Zimbabwe Transitional Stabilization Programme (TSP). This programme lay emphasis on quality service delivery and research collaboration. This article therefore investigates how knowledge sharing can strengthen librarians’ resilience and innovative drive to adjust to constant change. The quantitative research approach was employed in this study. The quantitative (survey) collected data from respondents through the questionnaire instrument. The data collected were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. Findings from the data gathered revealed that, innovative strategies for current and future practices on knowledge sharing among librarians were infused. The knowledge sharing patterns among librarians in Zimbabwe has becomes more deepened. Proposed ways in rendering services in line with current trends in professional development have created more awareness among academic librarians such that, professional associations and their special interest groups (SIG) have place emphasis on the importance of knowledge sharing. Cooperation and collaboration becomes the cornerstone for the survival of professionals in a digital economy. Several factors such as lack of support from institutions, negative attitude among others has interfered with knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing has also brought unprecedented opportunities for professional growth. The study recommends praxis-oriented strategies through which capacity building in knowledge sharing be attained in the different university libraries in Zimbabwe