Editorial: September issue

摘要

In this issue, we have focused on knowledge management (KM), in particular, the importance of knowledge sharing for organizations, the impact it can have to develop successful organizations and the effects of culture on creating the right environment for effective knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing is defined in Wikipedia as 'an activity through which knowledge (namely, information, skills, or expertise) is exchanged among people, friends, families, communities (for example, Wikipedia), or organizations'. Throughout my time at TFPL, I heard time and again how innovations in organizations occurred through the connection of people and effective knowledge sharing. In the past, a lot of the examples came from global companies who facilitated the connection of staff from across country borders to create innovative ideas to give a competitive edge. One of my favourite examples was an organization that, through the use of an internal Twitter-like service on their intranet, took lessons learned in one department in one country and applied it successfully for use in another unrelated department in another country. We are now moving into an age where even in global organizations local knowledge and knowledge sharing are as important as global. We consider the importance of local differentiation from global values in some of the papers in this issue when we consider cultural differences in effective knowledge sharing.