Expertise and Mistakes, to Share or Not to Share? A Cross Cultural Study of In-Group /Out-Group Relationships on Knowledge Sharing

Many factors have been identified as facilitating knowledge sharing in organizations. Culture is often considered as one of the critical ones. This empirical study examines the effect of national culture and in-group/out-group relationship on knowledge sharing attitude. A set of questionnaires measuring cultural values, and scenarios engendering different types of relationships among group members were conducted with students from China, United States, Kingdom of Bahrain and from the Kingdom of Thailand. The results show some cultural differences in term of knowledge sharing intensity and preferences. This suggests that global organizations should manage their knowledge sharing environment and strategy in different ways in different parts of the world if they want to maximize its benefits. There is a direct implication of this research on the usage of knowledge management technologies, since for instance, the participation in online communities of practices for employees of multinational corporations is directly affected by cultural values.