The Relational Dimension of Knowledge Sharing: an Empirical Study of an Industrial Research Group

Knowledge sharing is of central importance for many organizations. Since knowledge sharing is that important for organizations, much research has delved into factors determining the amount and quality of knowledge sharing within organizations. This paper will focus on the relational and motivational dimension of knowledge sharing, since this dimension of knowledge sharing is not fully understood. Past research has yielded a variety of fragmentary and sometimes contradictory results. We will show how relation models theory is able to integrate different existing models of knowledge sharing, such as gift giving and internal knowledge markets, and might be able to explain contradictory research findings. Second, based upon a field study of knowledge sharing within an industrial research group, it will be showed that relation models theory is a useful tool for analyzing knowledge sharing in practice. Since the industrial researchers studied were quite successful in sharing knowledge, we reflect upon to what extent the lessons learned can be applied for other organizations.