Motivation and Knowledge Sharing through Social Media within Danish Organizations

Based on an empirical quantitative study, this article investigates employee motivation in Danish companies and aims at determining which factors affect employees’ knowledge sharing through social media in a working environment. Our findings pinpoint towards the potential social media have for enhancing internal communication, knowledge sharing and collaboration in organizations, but the adoption is low, at this point, due to mainly organizational and individual factors. Technological factors do not seem to affect employees’ motivation for knowledge sharing as much as previous research has found, but it is the influence from the combination of individual and organizational factors, which affect the adoption of the platforms. A key finding in the study is that knowledge sharing is not a ‘social dilemma’ as previous studies have found. The study shows a positive development in employees’ willingness to share knowledge, because knowledge sharing is considered more beneficial than to hoard it.

[1]  Liam Fahey,et al.  Diagnosing cultural barriers to knowledge management , 2000 .

[2]  Chun Wei Choo,et al.  Innovation and knowledge creation: How are these concepts related? , 2006, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[3]  Andreas Riege,et al.  Actions to overcome knowledge transfer barriers in MNCs , 2007, J. Knowl. Manag..

[4]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .

[5]  Zahra Tohidinia,et al.  Knowledge sharing behaviour and its predictors , 2010, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[6]  Chun-Ming Chang,et al.  Knowledge sharing behavior in virtual communities: The relationship between trust, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations , 2007, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[7]  Andrew McAfee,et al.  Enterprise 2.0: the dawn of emergent collaboration , 2006, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[8]  Kathrin Kirchner,et al.  Personal knowledge management: The role of Web 2.0 tools for managing knowledge at individual and organisational levels , 2009, Online Inf. Rev..

[9]  T. Davenport.  Thinking for a living : how to get better performance and results from knowledge workers , 2005 .

[10]  Catalina Danis,et al.  A wiki instance in the enterprise: opportunities, concerns and reality , 2008, CSCW.

[11]  Dick Stenmark,et al.  Web 2.0 in the Business Environment: The New Intranet or a Passing Hype? , 2008, ECIS.

[12]  U. Cress,et al.  The social psychology of knowledge management , 2008 .

[13]  Julita Vassileva,et al.  Collaboration and Technology , 2014, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[14]  Jens Gammelgaard.  Why are we so hostile to sharing knowledge , 2004 .

[15]  D. Denyer,et al.  “Social”, “Open” and “Participative”? Exploring Personal Experiences and Organisational Effects of Enterprise2.0 Use , 2011 .

[16]  Joey Bernal.  Web 2.0 and Social Networking for the Enterprise: Guidelines and Examples for Implementation and Management Within Your Organization , 2009 .

[17]  Michael I. Barrett,et al.  Regulating the information gatekeepers , 2010, Commun. ACM.

[18]  Wei Li,et al.  Cultural influences on knowledge sharing through online communities of practice , 2006, J. Knowl. Manag..

[19]  Andrew McAfee,et al.  Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges , 2009 .

[20]  Liana Razmerita,et al.  Collaboration Using Social Media: The Case of Podio in a Voluntary Organization , 2013, CRIWG.

[21]  Xi Zhang,et al.  Effect of knowledge sharing visibility on incentive-based relationship in Electronic Knowledge Management Systems: An empirical investigation , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[22]  Cindy Hubert,et al.  The new edge in knowledge: how knowledge management is changing the way we do business , 2011 .

[23]  Samer Faraj,et al.  Why Should I Share? Examining Social Capital and Knowledge Contribution in Electronic Networks of Practice , 2005, MIS Q..

[24]  Shiu-Wan Hung,et al.  To give or to receive? Factors influencing members' knowledge sharing and community promotion in professional virtual communities , 2010, Inf. Manag..

[25]  Eric T. G. Wang,et al.  Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual communities: An integration of social capital and social cognitive theories , 2006, Decis. Support Syst..

[26]  D. Kiron,et al.  Social Business: Shifting Out of First Gear , 2013 .

[27]  Kathrin Kirchner,et al.  New forms of interaction and knowledge sharing on Web 2.0 , 2009 .

[28]  Angel Cabrera,et al.  Knowledge-Sharing Dilemmas , 2002 .

[29]  Alexander Ardichvili,et al.  Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice , 2003, J. Knowl. Manag..

[30]  Adel Ismail Al-Alawi,et al.  Organizational culture and knowledge sharing: critical success factors , 2007, J. Knowl. Manag..

[31]  E. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. , 2000, Contemporary educational psychology.

[32]  Sotirios Paroutis,et al.  Determinants of knowledge sharing using Web 2.0 technologies , 2009, J. Knowl. Manag..

[33]  Sebastian Spaeth,et al.  Carrots and Rainbows: Motivation and Social Practice in Open Source Software Development , 2012, MIS Q..

[34]  Kathrin Kirchner,et al.  Social Media in Organizations: Leveraging Personal and Collective Knowledge Processes , 2014, J. Organ. Comput. Electron. Commer..

[35]  Stephen J. Andriole,et al.  Business impact of Web 2.0 technologies , 2010, Commun. ACM.

[36]  Hsiu-Fen Lin.  Knowledge sharing and firm innovation capability: an empirical study , 2007 .

[37]  I. Nonaka.  The knowledge creating company". Harvard Business Review : . , 1991 .

[38]  Mark Loon,et al.  Knowledge Sharing: Influences of Trust, Commitment and Cost , 2012, J. Knowl. Manag..

[39]  Georg von Krogh,et al.  How does social software change knowledge management? Toward a strategic research agenda , 2012, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..