1. Creating a Knowledge Sharing Culture
Chapter 7
Creating a Knowledge Sharing Culture

2. Chapter Objectives
Develop better understanding of organizational culture
Key dimensions of different cultures
Identify cultural enablers and obstacles of knowledge sharing
Discuss relationship between organizational change and KM
Identify major phases involved in initiating organizational change to attain KM goals

3. Organizational Culture
Shared assumptions, beliefs, and values
Assumptions are developed by employees as they learn to cope with work and environment
Taken for granted, rarely spoken about publicly
Indirectly influenced by reward system and other symbolic actions (what is given priority in budgeting process, etc.)
Powerful unifying force
Also powerful restraint on change
Organization is embedded in larger social environment
Microcultures may exist across organization

4. Typology of Cultures Solidarity Sociability
High
Low
High
Communal Culture
Networked Culture
Sociability
Low
Mercenary Culture
Fragmented Culture
Sociability - measure for friendliness - high sociability - people orientation, team orientation and process focus
Solidarity - measure for task orientation - high solidarity - people work well together toward common goals despite personal conflicts

5. Typology of Cultures Communal Culture (Hsoc, Hsol)
Task Driven
Leaders are inspirational and charismatic
Leaders may exhibit too much influence, members may not be vocal
Networked Culture (Hsoc, Lsol)
Members are treated as friends and family
Wiling to help and share information
People may be reluctant to criticize poor performance
Mercenary Culture (Lsoc, Hsol)
Focus on strict goals
Little room for political cliques
Poor performance not tolerated
Fragmented Culture (Lsoc, Lsol)
Sense of belonging and identification with organization is weak
Commitment is to individual members
Potential lack of cooperation

6. Analysis of Organizational Culture: Levels
Artifacts
Visible structures and processes
Espoused values
Conscious or stated strategies, goals and assumptions
Basic assumptions and values
Unconscious, taken for granted beliefs, thoughts and feelings
These are source of values and action

7. Relationship Between Levels of Culture
Artifacts
Espoused Values
Basic Underlying Assumptions

8. Link between Organizational Culture and Knowledge Sharing
In-depth study of R&D dept of a high tech company (Gruber & Duxbury 2001)
Barriers and enablers of explicit and tacit knowledge sharing
Variables of openness, trust, top management support and the reward structure of the organization
Interviewed 30 employees 8

9. How is explicit knowledge shared?
Database (LotusNotes) 55%
Intranet 40%
Face to face* 28%
Shared drive 25%
* where is it? How do I get it? Who should I go see? types of questions 9

10. What makes it harder to share explicit knowledge?
Hard to find on intranet %
Hard to find in databases %
Missing explanation for retrieval %
Different systems – no standards 25%
Information is not where it should be 25%
Tools difficult to use %
Difficult to access database % 10

11. How could you make it easier for people to share?
Training for knowledge retrieval 60%
Define a knowledge strategy
Categorize in standard way 33%
Standardize technology 33%
Create project websites 25% 11

12. How is tacit knowledge shared?
How shared?
Face to face %
Informal personal networks 25%
What makes it harder?
Attitude (knowledge is power) 45%
Don’t know who expert is 33%
Don’t know if the knowledge exists 33%
Lose knowledge when people leave 25% 12

13. How could you make it easier to share tacit knowledge?
Recognize the value of tacit know 33%
Improve relationships within org 33%
Increase opportunities for people
within different parts of the org to
interact % 13

14. What would your dept look like with a k-sharing culture?
Communication and coordination between groups emphasized (45%)
Experts would not shield knowledge (33%)
Sharing of knowledge would be encouraged at all levels of the hierarchy (25%)
The organization would value sharing knowledge (25%)
Reward and recognition
In corporate objectives 14

15. Wish list? Standardize on tools Increase the number of social events
Workshops for knowledge sharing with experts and other groups
State knowledge sharing as an org goal
Enhance trust
Increase communication across project 15

16. Conclusions
Research shows that an environment that truly supports sharing of knowledge has the following characteristics:
Reward structure – recognition for knowledge sharing with peers
Openness/transparency – no hidden agendas
Sharing supported– communication and coordination between groups
Trust – shared objectives
Top management support – upward & downward communication

17. Changing Organizational Culture
Culture is resistant to change
People resist change
Change can be threatening
Don’t see benefit from change
Don’t feel ownership of change
Knowledge sharing culture
Knowledge sharing should be norm, not exception
People must be encouraged to work together and rewarded for doing so
Trust is key dimension

18. Three Myths about KM: Build it and they will come
People rarely take the time to learn new tools
Technology does not always give them what they want/need
People often don’t know what knowledge they need
Technology can replace face-to-face
Only if you ignore valuable tacit knowledge
First you have to create a learning culture
It is very hard and takes a very long time to change culture - - focus on changing behaviours then culture 18

19. Maturity Models
Good frameworks for understanding current culture of an organization
And the stages of how change is introduced
Can better identify the obstacles and enablers in order for the organization to attain the next level
Diagnose current state of organization to understand how individuals will react to KM iniatives
Helps to identify enablers and obstacles to required cultural changes 19

20. Stages of Organization Maturity
Non-cohesive culture
Decision making in-flight
Leadership structure vague
Operation model undefined
Employees evaporating
Multiple local cultures, leadership structures and operation models
Local decision making
Employee turnover high except in preferred classes of employees
Similar local cultures
Local decision making based on corporate strategy
Local leadership linked to corporate leadership team
Corporate operation model pushed down to local level
Stable employee base
Cohesive corporate culture and operation model
Corporate strategy drives operational tactics
Corporate leadership team coaches & empowers local leaders
Employees recruited & retained based on strategic direction
Culture adapts strategically
Operation model changes dynamically based on environmental changes
Professionals compete to work for corporation
Chaotic
Ad hoc
Organized
Managed
Agile 20 20