Individual and Social Barriers to Knowledge Transfer

It is often stated, that people use knowledge for their own benefit and that they share it only grudgingly. This may be partly true because our society has deep cultural traditions which tend to discourage knowledge sharing. Even memories from school confirm the picture of knowledge as a treasury that has to be protected and hidden. During examinations the use of shared potentials is castigated as a ‘crib’ and as an attempt to deceive; what counts are the individually produced results. On the other hand, the necessity of sharing knowledge in a company in order to use the economic resource knowledge efficiently and effectively is said to be one of the critical success factors nowadays. Through analysis drawn from literature and from own research experiences and knowledge management projects we discuss the various individual and social barriers that hinder people to share and transfer their knowledge. From this analysis we can draw some suggestions how to overcome these impediments.