Knowledge Sharing in Organizations: An Analysis of Motivators and Inhibitors

Knowledge is increasingly perceived as being commercially valuable and its ownership is being recognized by individuals and the organizations in which they work (Brown & Woodland, 1999; Weiss, 1999) and therefore, knowledge sharing has been identified as critical to the management of knowledge in organizations. Knowledge sharing connects individuals with the organization by transferring knowledge that resides with individuals to the organizational level where it is converted into economic and competitive value for the organization (Hendriks, 1999). However, knowledge sharing is not an activity that takes place seamlessly within organizations. In practice, problems with knowledge sharing have been identified as a major barrier to the effective management of knowledge in organizations (Hendriks, 1999). This paper reports on factors that function as motivators and inhibitors of knowledge sharing from a larger study on knowledge and knowledge sharing in organizations.