Shaping organizational Culture for Knowledge Sharing

The organizational culture should not be the legend of business rather it should be moderated periodically according to the business environment. Therefore, by understanding the role of organizational culture that can be promoted or demoted the knowledge sharing in organizations, following recommendations are suggested for promoting and sustaining in knowledge sharing.

• It is important to understand the culture of employees than the culture of top management because young generations are reluctant to change their attitudes for old thinking therefore specially the organization that work with young generations, it is necessary gets employee’s participation for management decisions that affect employees.

• The organization should more focus on the leadership who can transform employees for knowledge sharing therefore; organizational culture should shape in order to appoint suitable leader rather than the traditional promotion by experience. Further, it does not mean that always promotion based on just experience will not create good leader, however that culture should more align with knowledge sharing goals therefore, there is necessity of  leadership training and other HR training that could be used to enhanced the leadership qualities before promote based on experience.

• The Organization should create attractable place for employee gathering where they can exchange or create knowledge (‘ba’  concept as mentioned in SECI Model) because by providing adequate time for them to gathering providing facilities for Socializing that can enhance the knowledge sharing as a result of that organization can be created more innovation opportunities and managed knowledge being drained.

• The most important factor is creating trust among employees for knowledge sharing; therefore organization should create clear policies in order to make sure their job security and the transparent promotion those who are involving in knowledge sharing.

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Employee Motivation

                                            Source: Limeade Markerting , 2017

“Extrinsic motivation is related to ‘tangible’ rewards such as salary and fringe benefits, security, promotion, contract of service, the work environment and conditions of work. Such tangible rewards are often determined at the organizational level and may be largely outside the control of individual managers.

"Intrinsic motivation is related to ‘psychological’ rewards such as the opportunity to use One’s ability, a sense of challenge and achievement, receiving appreciation, positive   recognition and being treated in a caring and considerate manner. The psychological rewards are those that can usually be determined by the actions and behavior of individual managers. " Mullins (2010, p254)

Employee’s Motivation and Knowledge sharing

“Motivation involves creativity and sustaining the right environment, building climate for involvement, making people want to become more productivity for their own reason, setting up an ambience in which employees are allowed to or are helped to capture their right feeling when they do right things, and incentivizing employees with establishing and furthering productivity goals.”

( Kahn & Soverhall, 2007) 

Morello And Caldwell’s Model To Motivation Theory

Source: Whittom & Roy, 2009

The orgnizations can effectively promote a knowledge sharing by changing employee’s attitudes and behaviours to promote willing and consistent knowledge sharing and he further emphasizes motivation factors are key determinants of knowledge sharing behaviours and his article further revealed that extrinsic and intrinsic motivations factors are affecting for knowledge sharing behaviours (Lin 2007).

The Concept of ba

Accoding to Nonaka, "Ba" can be thought of as a shared space for emerging relationships. This space can be physical (eg. office, dispersed business space), virtual (e.g., email, teleconference), mental (eg. shared experiences, ideas, ideals) or any combination of them. Ba provides a platform for advancing individual and/or collective knowledge.

There are four types of ‘ba’ that correspond to the four stages of the SECI model. Each category describes a ba especially suited to each of the four knowledge conversion modes. These ba offer platforms for specific steps in the knowledge spiral process. Each ba supports a particular conversion process and there by each ba speeds up the process of knowledge creation.

The four Ba's proposed by Professor Ikujiro Nonaka are as below:

• Originating ba
• Interacting ba
• Cyber ba
• Exercising ba

“ While a community of practice is a living place where the members learn knowledge that is embedded in the community, ba is a living place where new knowledge is created. While learning occurs in any community of practice, ba needs energy to become an active ba where knowledge is created. The boundary of a community of practice is firm set by the task, culture and history of the community. Consistency and continuity are important for a community of practice, as it needs an identity. In contrast, the boundary of ba is fluid and can be changed quickly as it is set by the participants. " Nonaka, et al. (2000)

Knowledge Sharing

The Nonaka & Takeuchi  (1995) SECI model on knowledge management presents a set of four core processes, called, socialization, externalization, combination and internalization, and he suggested that  it may be more appropriate to further delineate these processes in terms of structural and informal knowledge processes.

“Knowledge sharing is a process where the individual exchange his/her knowledge and ideas through discussions to create new knowledge or ideas.” Alam, et al (2009)

The "ba"  is the place which organization should create employees to generate new ideas, however, if the organization could create separate gathering place for employees to share their knowledge or create new knowledge by collecting group of knowledge or experience that will create value added to the competitive advantage of the SME ( Nonaka, et al., 2000)  .

Employee’s Two Types of Knowledge

The employees’ skills provide the greatest and most sustainable source of  the organization’s competitive advantage, however, unfortunately for many companies, taking advantage of employee knowledge can be difficult. Therefore,in order to address this problem, strategies need to be developed that will allow your company to capture, store, and retrieve knowledge. (Moon, 2015).

There are two distinct types of knowledge: tacit and explicit in Knowledge Management.

Explicit Knowledge

"Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be easily articulated, codified, accessed, and verbalized. Explicit knowledge can be readily shared and lends itself to electronic capture, storage, communication, management, and automation. Its transfer does not require the interaction of individuals. A simplified explanation of explicit knowledge is to think of it as your company manuals and training programs. Explicit knowledge includes those basic procedures that are quantifiable. There should not be any ambiguity in explicit knowledge. Instead, it should be available for all employees and should be easy to absorb".  (Moon, 2015).

Tacit Knowledge

“Tacit knowledge (TK) exists in every corner of SME, in its structure and relationship especially in its people. Even though knowledge management will benefit SME as they are rich of tacit knowledge but lacking in expertise, financial capital and infrastructure, knowledge management (KM) is almost impossible for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) currently. Since SME have efficient and informal communication network, knowledge sharing is essential especially in an organization with scarce resources. Therefore, in the wake of knowledge-based economy, tacit knowledge sharing is the best tool for SME in enhancing competence and organizational performance which suit its needs and background. Tacit knowledge sharing is still at infancy especially in SME”. (Ngah & Jusoff, 2009)

Knowledge Sharing in Organization

 “In a world where markets, products, technologies, competitors, regulations and even societies change rapidly, continuous innovation and the knowledge that enables such innovation have become important sources of sustainable competitive advantage.”

                                                                                                                    Nonaka, et al. (2000)

The term of organizational knowledge or philosophy of knowledge has inherited from the work done by many philosophers, among them Michael Polanyi has defined knowledge in personal domain and Nonaka & Takeuchi extended Polenyie’s work and they have come out with the philosophy of corporate or organizational knowledge. 

Further, Nonaka and Takeuchi have introduced knowledge management model with four core processes, called, socialization, externalization, combination and internalization known as SECI below model  and they have further defined knowledge into two categories called explicit and tacit knowledge (Grant, 2007). 

                                                                 The SECI Model

                                                    Source: Nonaka & Takeuchi (2001)

According to the Nonaka & Takeuchi SECI model, four core processes can be defined as follows;

• ·         Socialization (Tacit to tacit) process is used to transfer tacit to tacit on through community of practices, guidance, observation etc.
• ·         Externalization (Tacit to Explicit) is phase where tacit knowledge will convert in to codify mode such as documents, manuals etc.
• ·         Combination (Explicit to Explicit) is phase used to create new knowledge by combining codified knowledge.
• ·         Internalization (Explicit to tacit) in this process existing codified knowledge is used to modify the existing tacit knowledge of user’s.

Knowledge Sharing within an Organization

The knowledge that employee needs to perform his or her employment or contribution to the organization  could be gained by the training and development or  their previous experience. However, knowledge is power that cannot be forced to share among others therefore when employees are getting experienced they know the value of their knowledge that pertaining their employment.

The recruitment process and the Training and development are very crucial process in terms of knowledge sharing because recruitment allow to glow new knowledge to the organization and as well when the training and development of Human resource will share and develop new knowledge base for organization. However, knowledge sharing is never ending process and it has to be continuous  chain of processes that survive the life line of the organization. Every organization has its own training and development system for their employees and new comers however this will be vary depending on the complexity of their employment or  tacit knowledge they gained from during their long time employment.

Moreover, if we look at  beyond the training & development then we can see the necessity of the knowledge sharing when it comes to complex job description that cannot be explicit documented the training and development, therefore to gather, share or develop such  knowledge what are the methods available:

• Coaching 

• Mentoring

• Peer Assist 

• After Action Review 

• Storytelling 

(Fsnnetwork.org, 2018)

Coaching

Coaching specifically aims to develop new qualifications and skills in an employee.It aims to improve that person’s learning and job performance, so that he/she can then reach organizational goals. The coach does not convey his or her personal vision to the employee. Coaching focuses solely on the employee’s predefined needs as these relate directly to his/her job; however, this relationship does not necessarily mean that the person reports to the coach. Coaching aims to develop abilities to meet targeted goals in a given work situation.

Benefits and strengths

•  Makes the employee feel more confident.
•  Gives the employee real support and follow-up.
•  Gives the employee the chance to learn from the coach’s experience
•  Improves the employee’s chances of success.

Mentoring

Mentoring is a learning relationship between two employees. Mentors are experienced employees who share their knowledge, experience and ideas with less experienced employees, or associates. Associates are people who have shown what they can do. Associates really want to acquire new knowledge and skills. Mentoring is not specific to a position. A mentor is not the employee’s manager. Mentoring occurs outside any formal employer employee relationship. Mentoring looks to the future. Its aim is career development. Its aim is to give associates the general management and/or leadership skills that will prepare them to meet the demands, roles and responsibilities that lie ahead.

Mentoring is based on mutual commitment, respect and trust. 

Benefits and strengths

• Less experienced employees become better equipped to meet organization future challenges. They become better equipped to provide the leadership that will be needed.

• Mentoring gives mentors the chance to share their experience and expertise in a rewarding relationship.Mentors are also exposed to new ways of thinking and doing things.

• For organization, mentoring improves internal communication. It improves knowledge sharing. It makes the work environment more stimulating and productive.

What is knowldge sharing

“In a world where markets, products, technologies, competitors, regulations and even societies change rapidly, continuous innovation and the knowledge that enables such innovation have become important sources of sustainable competitive advantage.” Nonaka, et al. (2000)

Human Resources and Organizations

The human resources is one of  key resources for organization, because organization need human resources for inventing, designing,  producing , operating  machinary or  technology or solutions. Accordingly, process of human resources can be shown as below Figure.

(Assignmentdesign.com, 2018)

According to the above figure, failing to manage the human resource will impact to the suatainbility of any organization that can lead to faill achived organizational goals. Further, as a result of that sudden leaving of employees with short notice or without will have direct impact to the any  organization because training development will take substantial period. This has been further emphasied by the Reige (2005)  as follows:

“As a continuous process, people join an organization, work for the organization, and then at some point, leave the organization. Employees usually join the company with previous education and experience, and leave the company with more knowledge and experience that is related to the company’s work, activities and culture. The more time an employee spends in an organization, the more this loss can be noticed.” (Riege,2005)