Knowledge Sharing
In new age, knowledge has become a significant source. It is believed that the person who has knowledge he has
everything. The organizations also preferred a person who has adequate knowledge because they think that the people with knowledge can perform better and can share their knowledge with others. It is said that knowledge should not be confused with information because information is information and knowledge has various aspects. When it comes to knowledge researchers said that knowledge is learnt by considering and looking up each other. Knowledge is learnt from the community, through social practices and through interaction. When individual interact with each other, they are not just talking but actually, they are also sharing information. The employee who do not have knowledge or required information he can never be successful and can face problems. The employee who does not have appropriate knowledge could face failure in future.
Knowledge sharing is very important, and to increase knowledge sharing many organizations is working on it. One can share knowledge through internet; internet or web is very effective tool now days. Web technology is a source to communicate and interact, the people who are working in educational institute they can or in any other educational setting; they can also learn or gain knowledge through internet. Knowledge sharing is a positive source, which can help to promise hindrance factors. It is clear that motivated learners can give better knowledge then who are not interested and their knowledge could be helpful for all. Sharing knowledge can motivate learners to work in different settings even if they have not studied that but if learners have knowledge then they can perform better in any field.
Knowledge sharing in this modern world is as important as the food or other necessities, because the person who is without knowledge cannot survive. If employee or worker don not have any related knowledge towards his filed then he should be able to learn or try to learn from different sources. Employers can help the employees in getting relevant knowledge related to their field, and employer or co-workers should not discourage that person. But try to help and appreciate him so he work more hard in the future and try to gain and share knowledge. Free space should also be given to workers so that they could learn from others through discussions or knowledge sharing.
Knowledge can also come from the social system like from the family, educational sector or community. It is said that knowledge also teaches how to manage and perform tasks. Social system, norms, or values play an important role in human’s development and for his to give him knowledge; the researchers influence more to learn from social norms and society because through that a person comes to know how to deal with the situations.
The person who have knowledge he is open minded, trust worthy and self motivated person. Knowledge sharing is very important in any organization. Organizations should allow people to talk and share their knowledge through this their knowledge exchanges and new ideas will generate. People will also learn how to deal with attitudes and behavior. The organizational leaders should try to set such social norms in which sharing of knowledge take place, because in the result motivation and success take place. There will be learning between staff members if they talk to each other and practice social norms.
Factors and Theories of Knowledge Sharing
Social Factors
Following are some social factors, which can take place during knowledge sharing.
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Openness in communication:
When a person has proper knowledge and he knows how to interact then he feels no shy to communicate with others. There should be openness of communication in every organization because when a person is free to communicate he is not only communicating but also he also sharing the knowledge. In this way the person express, his ideas in workplace and employees will be committed to their work. There should be respect and honor in open communication. If there is openness in communication then employee feels free that what problems he is facing, through communication their performance will be better ultimately output increases, everybody would be clear about his work. The more people interact with each other’s the more they get comfortable with their co-workers and boss. Openness in communication people can frequently talk to each other thus issues will resolve or will not take place, it can give positive impacts and individual susceptibility increases.
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Interpersonal Trust:
If communications become successful then the trust among the members takes place. There should atmosphere of trust within the organization. It is a psychological feeling that if there is trust there will be sense of security and performance of employees will be better. Sharing knowledge give benefit to the both parties, both learn from each other. If the knowledge shared properly then trust develops, and once the trust develops there will be more share of knowledge because more communication take place and people feel free to talk with each other. If the people feel secure, and organization shows them that how much they are important for the organization then comminute more freely. The boss or supervisor should listen to the employee carefully so the level of trustiness increases, it not only gives benefit to the employee but to the organization also.
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Self-Motivation:
There would be no effective knowledge sharing if there would be no or less participation of the individuals, to share the knowledge one must be competent and self motivated. He should have ability and motivation to share the knowledge to others. Self-motivation or self-efficacy is something, which every individual have but it vary person to person, some have more capability to share knowledge and some has less. If a person has trust on himself then the knowledge, he delivers is accurate. The more the self-motivation a person has the more he will perform and the more he will share knowledge. The person who have self-confidence on his self, he will be willing to share much of the knowledge. Self-motivation gives courage to a person to share more knowledge in a community. Effective output will take place and productivity of the organization will increases. It could also be the intrinsic desire of a person to share knowledge; these kinds of people are very important and helpful in every organization. Self-motivation is also dependent on that how much knowledge a person has. If a person has waste of knowledge then he will not hesitate in sharing. The one has to take initiative if he really wants to share knowledge.
Technology Acceptance
To extend the knowledge the acceptance of technology is the most important thing; one who really wants to share
knowledge should use technology, as technology is updated now so the people who want to transfer and gain more knowledge should use and accept the technology. Person attitude plays an important role that how much he is concern about using the technology, if he has positive attitude towards technology he feel no issues in using new technology. If individual thinks that if it is easy to use new technologies and he think that technologies are useful in modern world then it means his attitude towards technology acceptance is positive. The researchers and the studies say that if the person has positive correlation it means that he attracts towards the technology and believe that technologies are useful. Now day’s technology is playing important role in knowledge sharing. For example, the people who want to gets knowledge or share knowledge can use internet. If the user perceive no difficulty in using technology then it is easier for him to share the knowledge.
Attitude, Subjective Norm and Behavioral Intention
Many researchers said that a man is known by his attitude that how he is behaving, attitude is something from which a personality of man is known. The way of his perception is also arrive from his attitude, the way he behaves and the way he perform all comes from his attitude. If acceptance is in the nature of a person then he will accept the technologies soon. Sharing knowledge is a part of human attitude, norms and behaviors. Positive attitude of a person can make him helpful and important for any community. As norms are formed by people of society, every behavioral act are part of norms and value so knowledge sharing should also be the part of social norms. People will learn from each other and their knowledge and attitude towards other transformed. People adopt from each other so they also adopt knowledge if knowledge is also part of social norms. In every social situation men learn that how to react, studies has tell that norms has impact on human behavior, from his social norms or societal behaviors of others, he can also gain knowledge from his social norms which could be beneficial for him and his attitude. Human behavior and his intension also plays significant role in sharing the knowledge.
Theories of Knowledge Sharing:
Different theories support the concepts of knowledge sharing, theory of planned behavior (TPB) by Fishbein and Aizen (1975), says that this theory predicts human’s behavior and it based on reasoned action (TRA), that how human react in different situations, this theory is based on three different elements which has impact on human attitude and human decision making power. According to TRA that how person attitudes, behaviors, and his other external factors changes in different situations.
According to Fishbein (1975), the statistics says that the certain behavior of man can be determined by his attitude and his views can be determined by social norms because when a person is reacting something he may be reacting because of the social pressure he have. There could be many more reasons of his behaviors to notice and measure them is important.
According to Yeo and Gold (2014), human is influenced by the knowledge he is sharing, and by that how he perceive his personality, his attitudes and his experiences are also related. Davidson and Jaccard, (1975) have discovered in their research that human attitudes, behaviors and intensions are vary field to field.
As we have discussed earlier about the technology acceptance by the individual plays an important role knowledge sharing, Davis (1989), also discussed about technology acceptance that individual attitudes and beliefs to react in a specific situation matters, like how people use the websites.