Knowledge Management in IT Organizations from Employee´s Perspective

Research has shown that the current knowledge management (KM) approaches do not emphasize enough on knowledge sharing from non-executive employee’s perspective. However, it is important for organizations to understand from employees’ perspective the factors that motivate them to share knowledge before implementing any KM program. In this exploratory study, we consider employee’s willingness to knowledge share as the dependent variable. Our survey-based research of two large IT service and consulting organizations was aimed at examining cultural, technological, motivational, and organizational factors, which influence knowledge sharing within an organization from a non-executive employee’s perspective. Study results showed that issues relating to the availability and usability of technology, leadership support and motivating structures were shown to have influences on knowledge sharing. The study also revealed that employee’s willingness to share knowledge was not reduced by their concerns about the loss of power or job insecurity. We recommend that this research can be expanded to different types of organizations to understand influencing factors of knowledge sharing from an employee perspective with independent variables such as discipline, geographical location, organization size, and type.