Soroosh Emami Graduated in Industrial Management, Management Department, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

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1 Studying the effective organizational factors on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, Iran Hadi Teimouri, Ph.D (Corresponding author) Assistant Professor of Management Department, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran Address: The University of Isfahan / HezarJerib.st / Isfahan /Iran, Postal Code: Soroosh Emami Graduated in Industrial Management, Management Department, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran Shiva Hamidipour Graduated in Industrial Management, Management Department, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran Abstract In recent years, the concept of knowledge in organizations has been become increasingly popular in the literature, as knowledge being recognized as the most important resource of organizations. Although knowledge has always been an important factor in organizations, only in the last decade has it been considered the primary source of competitive advantage and critical to the long-term sustainability of organizations. The recognition of knowledge, as the key resource of today s organizations affirms the need for processes that facilitate the creation, sharing, and leveraging of individual and collective knowledge. The major aim of this paper is to study the effective organizational factors on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. The mentioned aim will be studied by supposing some factors such as organizational technology, strategy, culture, structure and process as effective organizational factors to knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations. This survey is of applied type in terms of purpose and is descriptive-field in terms of methodology. Historical study was used to collect data related to theoretical principles of research like books and scientific magazines and researcher self made questionnaire (with acceptable reliability of 93.4%) was applied for data collection and its analysis. The results of this research indicate that organizational technology, strategy, culture, structure and process affect on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, Organizational Effective Factors 1- Introduction The creation and transfer of knowledge in an organization has become a critical factor in an organizations success and competitiveness. Many organizations are now concentrating their efforts on how knowledge, particularly tactic knowledge that exists in the organization, can be transferred across the organization. In studies done in various organizations, Dixon (2000) found that the two main knowledge activities that need to be balanced are the creation of knowledge (referred to as common knowledge) and the transferring of knowledge across time and space. What is knowledge transfer? Major and Cordey-Hayes (2002) see a transfer of knowledge as a conveyance of knowledge from one place, person, ownership, etc., to another. It involves two or more parties and there has to be a source and a destination. Generally, when something is being transferred, someone will gain it and someone else will lose it. However, knowledge which is regarded as an intangible asset is different from tangible assets. Tangible assets tend to depreciate in value when they are used, but knowledge grows when used and depreciates when not used (Sveiby, 2001). This means that knowledge will keep on growing whenever a person shares the knowledge that he/she has; when someone transfers their knowledge, they do not lose it. Knowledge transfer require the willingness of a group or individual to work with others and share knowledge to their mutual benefit. Without sharing, it is almost impossible for knowledge to be transferred to other person. This shows that knowledge transfer will not occure in an organization unless its employees and work groups display a high level of co-operative behavior (Goh, 2002). Knowledge is transferred not only from individual to COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 920

2 individual, but also involves individual to a team or group, team or group to individual, or team or group to team or group ( Bender and Fish, 2000). According to Davenport and Prusak, knowledge transfer involves two actions which are transmission (sending or presenting knowledge to a potential recipient) and absorption by that person or group (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). They further stress that transmission and absorption together have no value unless they lead to some change in behavior, or the development of some idea that leads to new behavior ( Davenport and Prusak, 1998). Although knowledge transfer is very important in an organization, Jacob and Ebrahimpur (2001) believe that the actual transfer of knowledge within organizations still remains a problematic issue for managers. Organizations should identify where tactic and explicit knowledge resides when designing strategies, in order to ensure that knowledge is created and transferred to the right individuals. However, knowledge, particularly tactic knowledge, is very difficult to transfer. Argote argues that one of the reasons why knowledge is difficult to transfer is because some of the knowledge acquired thorough learning by doing is idiosyncratic to the particular constellation of people, technology, structures and environmental conditions ( Argote, 1993). 2- Knowledge and Information The terms information and knowledge are often used interchangeably in the literature. Some authors distinguished between the two terms (e.g., Blackler, 1995; Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Pemberton, 1998), whereas others used both terms synonymously (e.g., Kogut & Zander, 1992; Stewart, 1997). This article recognizes the distinction between information and knowledge. Davenport and Prusak (1998) defined knowledge as a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insights that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates in and is applied in the minds of knower. Nonaka and Takeuchi s (1995) definition of knowledge is far broader in scope and is stated as a dynamic human process of justifying personal belief toward the truth (p. 58). According to these authors, information is the flow of messages (p. 58), and knowledge is created when this flow of messages interacts with the beliefs and commitments of its holders. They identified three characteristics that distinguished information from knowledge. First, knowledge is a function of a particular perspective, intention, or stance taken by individuals, and therefore, unlike information, it is about beliefs and commitment. Second, knowledge is always about some end, which means that knowledge is about action. Third, it is context specific and relational and therefore it is about meaning. 3- The knowledge sharing in organizations An organization s ability to effectively leverage its knowledge is highly dependent on its people, who actually create, share, and use the knowledge. Leveraging knowledge is only possible when people can share the knowledge they have and build on the knowledge of others. Knowledge sharing is basically the act of making knowledge available to others within the organization. Knowledge sharing between individuals is the process by which knowledge held by an individual is converted into a form that can be understood, absorbed, and used by other individuals. The use of the term sharing implies that this process of presenting individual knowledge in form that can be used by others involves some conscious action on the part of the individual who possesses the knowledge. Sharing also implies that the sender does not relinquish ownership of the knowledge; instead, it results in joint ownership of the knowledge between the sender and the recipient (Ipe, 2003). Knowledge sharing is important because it provides a link between the individual and the organization by moving knowledge that resides with individuals to the organizational level, where it is converted into economic and competitive value for the organization (Hendriks, 1999). Cohen and Levinthal (1990) proposed that interactions between individuals who possess diverse and different knowledge enhance the organization s ability to innovate far beyond what any one individual can achieve. Boland and Tenkasi (1995) concurred with this idea and contended that competitive advantage and product success in organizations results from individuals with diverse knowledge collaborating synergistically toward common outcomes. COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 921

3 4- Background of Research Many factors influence on knowledge sharing in organizations. For example, Ives and et. al., (2003) and Spender. (1996) suggests that the effectiveness of organizational knowledge transfer is influenced by key organizational factors such as structure, culture, processes and strategy, and information technology. Ardichvili and et. al., (2003) suggests that when employees view knowledge as a public good belonging to the whole organization, knowledge flows easily. However, even when individuals give the highest priority to the interests of the organization and of their community, they tend to shy away from contributing knowledge for a variety of reason. Specifically, employees hesitate to contribute out of fear of criticism, or of misleading the community members (not being sure that their contributions are important, or completely accurate, or relevant to a specific discussion). To remove the identified barriers, there is a need for developing various types of trust, ranging from the knowledge based to the institution- based trust. Al-Alawi et. al., (2007) suggests that trust, communication, information systems, rewards and organization structure are positively related to knowledge sharing in organizations. In this paper, in regarding background of research, the impact of organizational factors on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province is review. 5- Research hypotheses The following hypotheses were studied proportional to organizational effective factors on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations: 1- Organizational technology affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. 2- Organizational strategy affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. 3- Organizational culture affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. 4- Organizational structure affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. 5- Organizational process affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. 6- Research methodology This survey is of applied type in terms of purpose and is descriptive-field in terms of methodology. Historical study was used to collect data related to theoretical principles of research like books and scientific magazines and researcher self made questionnaire (with acceptable reliability of 93.4%) was applied for data collection and its analysis. Statistical population of the survey included all experts and managers at various levels in governmental organizations of Isfahan province in which random sampling method (available) was used. First a preliminary study was performed by distributing questionnaires between the members of the statistical population and statistical sample volume was determined after estimating the primary variance (117 persons). SPSS software was used to process and summarize exploited information from questionnaires. Also descriptive statistics methods (frequency, mean) and inferential statistics methods were utilized to analyze data and confirmation or rejection of research hypotheses respectively. 7- Data analysis 7-1- Studying demographic characteristics of the statistical sample under study In this section characteristics of the statistical sample under study are examined based on organizational job (table 1). COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 922

4 According to results of table 1, organizational job of 77.8 of statistical sample is expertism, organizational job of 7.7 is operational management, organizational job of 10.3 is middle management and organizational job of 4.3 is senior management Studying descriptive statistics of questions supporting research hypotheses In this section descriptive statistics of questions supporting research hypotheses will be studied separately Studying descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis one Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis one are studied separately in table 2. According to results of table 2, between the factors related to organizational technology the highest impact level on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations is related to proportionality of technology with needs of the organization with average amount of 4.15 and the lowest impact is related to ease of use of organizational technologies with average amount of Studying descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis two Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis two are studied separately in table 3. According to results of table 3, between the factors related to organizational strategies the highest impact level on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations is related to accurate perception of employees from organizational strategies with average amount of 4.01 and the lowest impact is related to proportionality of the organization's strategies with environmental changes with average amount of Studying descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis three Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis three are studied separately in table 4. According to results of table 4, between the factors related to organizational culture the highest impact level on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations is related to existence of sense of mutual cooperation between employees with average amount of 4.14 and the lowest impact is related to existence of informal relations in the organization with average amount of Studying descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis four Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis four are studied separately in table 5. According to results of table 5, between the factors related to organizational structure the highest impact level on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations is related to existence of effective and short communicative channels with average amount of 3.78 and the lowest impact is related to non-concentration of authorities in the organization with average amount of Studying descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis five Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis five are studied separately in table 6. According to results of table 6, between factors related to organizational process the highest impact level on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations is related to distinctiveness of job duties with average amount of 3.96 and the lowest impact is related to existence of variety in job duties with average amount of Testing of research hypotheses Results related to testing of research hypotheses are studied separately in this section Testing of hypothesis one Hypothesis 1: Organizational technology affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 923

5 Results related to testing of hypothesis one are studied in table 7. According to results of table 7, organizational technology affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is significant at significance level lower than 5% Testing of hypothesis two Hypothesis 2: Organizational strategy affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. Results related to testing of hypothesis two are studied in table 8. According to results of table 8, organizational strategy affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is significant at significance level lower than 5% Testing of hypothesis 3 Hypothesis 3: Organizational culture affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. Results related to testing of hypothesis three are studied in table9. According to results of table 9, organizational technology affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is significant at significance level lower than 5% Testing of hypothesis 4 Hypothesis 4: Organizational structure affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. Results related to testing of hypothesis four are studied in table 10. According to results of table 10, organizational structure affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is significant at significance level lower than 5% Testing of hypothesis 5 Hypothesis 5: Organizational process affects on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. Results related to testing of hypothesis five are studied in table 11. According to results of table 11, organizational processes affect on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is significant at significance level lower than 5% Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about effective organizational factors on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province Significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about effective organizational factors on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province are evaluated in this section Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational technology on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province Significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about impact of organizational technology on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province are evaluated in table 12. According to results of table 12, there is no significant difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational technology on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is not significant at significance level lower than 5%. COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 924

6 7-4-2 Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational strategy on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province Significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about impact of organizational strategy on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province are evaluated in table13. According to results of table 13, there is no significant difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational strategy on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is not significant at significance level lower than 5% Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational culture on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province Significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about impact of organizational culture on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province are evaluated in table 14. According to results of table 14, there is no significant difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational culture on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is not significant at significance level lower than 5% Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational structure on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province Significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about impact of organizational structure on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province are evaluated in table 15. According to results of table 15, there is no significant difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational structure on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is not significant at significance level lower than 5% Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational process on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province Significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about impact of organizational process on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province are evaluated in this section. According to results of table 16, there is no significant difference between opinions of experts and managers at various levels about the impact of organizational process on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province, since the calculated statistic is not significant at significance level lower than 5%. Conclusion The results of this research indicate that organizational technology, strategy, culture, structure and process affect on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organizations in Isfahan province. COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 925

7 References -Al-Alawi, A., and et. al., (2007), Organizational culture and knowledge sharing: critical success factors, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol.11, No.2, pp Ardichvili, A. et. Al., (2003), Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge sharing communities of practice, journal of knowledge management, Vol.7, No.1, pp Argote, A.(1993), Group and organizational learning curves: individual, system and environment components, British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol.32, pp Bender, S. and Fish, A. (2000), The transfer of knowledge and the retention of expertise: the continuing need for global assignments, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol.4, No.2, pp Blackler, F. (1995), Knowledge, knowledge work and organizations: An overview and interpretation. Organization Studies, 16(6), Boland, R. J. J., & Tenkasi, R. V. (1995), Perspective making and perspective taking in communities of knowing. Organization Science, 6(4), Cohen,W. M., & Levinthal, D. A. (1990), Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, Davenport, T.H. and Prusak, L. (1998), Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. -Dixon, N.M. (2000), Common knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. -Goh, S.C.(2002), Managing effective knowledge transfer: an integrative framework and some practice implication, Journal of knowledge management, Vol. 6, No.1, pp Ives, W., Torrey, B. and Gordon, C. (2003), Knowledge transfer: transfer is human behavior, in Morey, C., Maybury, M. and Thuraisingham, B. (Eds), Knowledge Management: Classic and Contemporary Works, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. -Jacob, M. and Ebrahimpur, G. (2001), Experience vs. expertise: the role of implicit understanding of knowledge in determining the nature of knowledge transfer in two companies, Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol.2, No. 1, pp Kogut, B., & Zander, U. (1992), Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities, and the replication of technology. Organization Science, 3(3), Major, E. and Cordey- Hayes, M. (2000), Knowledge translation: a new perspective on knowledge transfer and foresight, Foresight, Vol.2, No.4, pp Nonaka, I.,& Takeuchi, H. (1995), The knowledge creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. New York: Oxford University Press. -Spender, J.C. (1996), Organizational knowledge, learning and memory: three concepts in search of a theory, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 9, pp COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 926

8 -Sveiby, K-E.(2001), A knowledge-based theory of the firm to guide in strategy formulation, Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol.2, No.4, pp Stewart, T. A. (1997), Intellectual capital: The new wealth of organizations. New York: Doubleday Currency. -Pemberton, M. J. (1998), Knowledge management (KM) and the epistemic tradition. Records Management Quarterly, 32(3), Hendriks, P. (1999), Why share knowledge? The influence of ICT on the motivation for knowledge sharing. Knowledge and Process Management, 6(2), COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 927

9 Annexure Table 1- Statistical sample under study based on organizational job Organizational job Frequency Frequency percentage Expertism Operational management Middle management Senior management Sum Table 2- Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis one Question Average Standard deviation Up-to-dating of machineries and the applied equipments Proportionality of technology with needs of the organization Ease of use of organizational technologies Table 3- Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis two Question Average Standard deviation Accurate perception of employees from organizational strategies Existence of clear and specified strategies in the organization Cohesion between strategies of the organization Proportionality of the organization's strategies with environmental changes Table 4- Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis three Questions Average Standard deviation Existence of informal relations in the organization Existence of sense of mutual cooperation between employees Existence of common working values between employees Accurate and appropriate attitude of managers with regard to employees Existence of effective working culture Dominance of modern management thinking Bounding to moral principles Bounding to organizational values Superiority of organizational benefits over personal benefits COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 928

10 Table 5- Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis four Question Average Standard deviation Existence of effective and short communicative channels Non-concentration of authorities in the organization Non-existence of awkward regulations Existence of flexible organizational structure Table 6- Descriptive statistics of questions supporting hypothesis five Question Average Standard deviation Cohesion and coordination between various organizational activities Elimination of reworking and organizational bottlenecks Distinctiveness of job duties Existence of variety in job duties Table 7-Testing hypothesis 1 Statistic of Research hypothesis test Degree of freedom Significanc e level Impact of organizational technology on knowledge sharing Table 8-Testing hypothesis 2 Statistic of Degree of Significanc Research hypothesis test freedom e level Impact of organizational strategy on knowledge sharing Table 9-Testing hypothesis 3 Statistic of Degree of Significanc Research hypothesis test freedom e level Impact of organizational culture on knowledge sharing Table 10-Testing hypothesis 4 Statistic of Degree of Significanc Research hypothesis test freedom e level Impact of organizational structure on knowledge sharing COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 929

11 Table 11-Testing hypothesis 5 Research hypothesis Statistic of test Degree of freedom Significanc e level Impact of organizational processes on knowledge sharing Table 12- Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers about impact of organizational technology on knowledge sharing Research hypothesis Statistic of the test Significance level Impact of organizational technology on knowledge sharing Table 13- Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers about impact of organizational strategy on knowledge sharing Research hypothesis Statistic of the test Significance level Impact of organizational strategy on knowledge sharing Table 14- Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers about impact of organizational culture on knowledge sharing Research hypothesis Statistic of the test Significance level Impact of organizational culture on knowledge sharing Table 15- Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers about impact of organizational structure on knowledge sharing Research hypothesis Statistic of the test Significance level Impact of organizational structure on knowledge sharing Table 16- Studying significance of difference between opinions of experts and managers about impact of organizational process on knowledge sharing Research hypothesis Statistic of the test Significance level Impact of organizational process on knowledge sharing COPY RIGHT 2011 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 930