Knowledge Sharing and Factors That Influence Individual's Knowledge Sharing Behavior - Essay Example

Previously, traditional economies and organizations relied upon assets such as capital and land having physical value. In the modern economy, this trend has changed and knowledge is now the key factor to gaining a competitive advantage (Beijerse, 1999). In the contemporary business world, knowledge sharing fundamentally means that employees contribute to knowledge application, innovation, and ultimately the competitive advantage of the organization (Wang & Noe, 2010). Knowledge sharing has distinct advantages.

It is positively related to a reduction in production costs, faster completion of new product development projects, team performance, firm innovation capabilities, and firm performance. Firm performance includes sales growth and revenue from new products and services (Wang & Noe, 2010). Scholars have divided knowledge into two forms – explicit and tacit – when it comes to the nature of the knowledge (Nonaka et al., 2000; Smith, 2001; Lindvall & Rus, 2002). Explicit knowledge is saved in codified form in databases and can be easily conveyed to the receiver without any misunderstanding (Smith, 2001).

Tacit knowledge is ‘know-why and ‘know-how’ and can be referred to as experimental knowledge. Smith (2001) describes tacit knowledge as the unarticulated part of knowledge residing in an individual´s mind. This type of knowledge, unlike explicit knowledge, is hard to present in a written format thereby making it difficult to transfer to others or store (Smith, 2001). Knowledge sharing in organizations is dependent on the nature of the knowledge being shared (tacit and explicit knowledge).

Sharing, transferring, and storing tacit and explicit knowledge differs from each other. Tacit knowledge is the unarticulated part of knowledge residing in the individual´s mind (Smith, 2001). Although knowledge-sharing is considered to be of vital importance to organizations, it will not be achieved if there is a lack of a knowledge-sharing culture, and trust. Knowledge is defined in the knowledge management literature in several ways.