What shapes employees' decisions to share knowledge in real work practices---An exploration of knowledge sharing processes and factors shaping workers' knowledge sharing when performing a task.

摘要

Effective knowledge sharing among employees enhances the collective innovative capability of an organization. Integrating structuration theory, social motivation theory, commitment to social foci theory, this study investigated what shapes employees' decisions to share knowledge in real work practices. Taking a grounded approach and building on data from business process analysis, the study was conducted in a naturalistic setting and extracted key workflows, business processes and task performance routines with which workers were interacting on a daily basis. This resulted in a model of knowledge sharing process that integrates five key dimensions (employees' motivation and commitment, lower management's attitude and facilitation, top management's support, efficient organizational intervention mechanism, and the supporting role of information technology), as well as crucial factors shaping employees' knowledge sharing decisions. The 42 participants worked in a city's utility department and employed mobile information systems to support their work. The study included qualitative approaches through documentation review, in-depth interviews , and on-site observations . A qualitative analysis of documentation, in-depth interviews and on-site observations showed organizational knowledge sharing process is iterative and dynamic. During this process, individuals' knowledge sharing decisions were constantly being shaped by, as well as shaped, interactions among individual sharing practices, workflows, business processes, and organizational interventions---such as training, formal role definitions and performance review. Data and information related to organizational knowledge was collected, analyzed, used, disseminated, tested, feedback initiated and collected, reviewed, reanalyzed, and reused, before a shared understandings of workflows, business processes and task performance were generated and shared via new workflows, business processes and individuals' new sharing practices. Investigations of gaps between what the organization was designed to achieve and what was actually functioning reviewed the motivation and commitment to knowledge sharing practices and pointed out the disadvantages of using information systems as main knowledge accumulation tools for long term development. Since findings are grounded in real government field work operations, emergency response and daily business practices, it resulted in insightful guidelines for mobile system design, government emergency response practices and business process redesign.