Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, Second Edition

Conclusion and Research Imperatives

Knowledge sharing is a key process in many knowledge management activities, including the capture, transfer, and creation of knowledge. If we abandon the idea that knowledge can be shared as a simple process of communicating information, it might be more appropriate for future theory and research in knowledge management and organizational learning to consider knowledge sharing a problem of collective action among actors with diverse and distributed interests. The literature proposes different solutions to this problem that are worth examining. The first is to install an agency external to the knowledge-sharing process that structures, incentivizes, and monitors knowledge sharing, and punishes defiant behavior. Several problems are associated with this solution, such as choosing the right incentives for sharing and obtaining sufficient information for overseeing sharing activities with some degree of certainty.

Second, the communal resource reduces the social costs of sharing knowledge, eliminating the need to resort to an agency or to large numbers of organizational members. However, where interests are diverse and distributed, the effectiveness of the community as a communal resource depends on its opportunity structures and social norms. Opportunity structures for knowledge sharing work on cues observed among people in the community. These cues cover both task performance and ways to share knowledge. In terms of behavior, communities can deeply ...