When knowledge sharing turns into knowledge hiding

When knowledge sharing turns into knowledge hiding

Despite efforts to enhance knowledge sharing and collaboration in organizations, for many, success has been elusive. It’s becoming clear that in many instances employees are unwilling to share knowledge, even when organizational practices are designed to facilitate this behavior.

By Nishwa Ashraf, Assistant Editor, Melcrum Ltd.

When you look at the theory behind knowledge sharing – the activity through which information, skills and/or expertise is exchanged among employees enterprise-wide – it’s no surprise that many organizations have recognized that knowledge constitutes a valuable intangible asset for creating and sustaining competitive advantage.

After all, businesses already have access to an extensive pool of knowledge, from the skills and experience of the workforce and their understanding of customers’ needs, the files or documents (whether held digitally or in print), to plans and ideas for future activities.

Harnessing and exploiting such insights in a productive and coherent way can be key for a business to achieve organizational goals and perform successfully.

According to findings from AMR Research, companies spent nearly US$73 billion on knowledge management software in 2008. For these organizations investing heavily in knowledge management tools, it may come as a blow to discover that, despite such investment, companies are not seeing an improvement in their information flow.

While there are a myriad of reasons why employees can struggle to access the information they need when they need it, the main reason behind this is simply that some employees won’t share what they know, according to a new study.

Dubbed “knowledge hiding”, authors David Zweig of the Rotman School of Management, Catherine Connelly of McMaster University, Jane Webster of Queen’s University, and the University of Toronto’s John Trougakos, conducted several studies to confirm evidence of knowledge hiding and cited three techniques employees use to buck knowledge management initiatives:

·         Being evasive, or just repeatedly ignoring requests for information.

·         Rationalized hiding, such as claiming the requested information is confidential and can’t be shared.

·         Playing dumb, or pretending they don’t have the information being requested.

The findings also identified two main reasons why employees might indulge in such behavior: having basic distrust of co-workers and/or management, and a poor knowledge sharing climate within the company.

For organizations that promote a culture where knowledge is a form of currency, it can propel employees’ reluctance to share what they know.

After all, when knowledge is power, why would you share your valuable information with a colleague or someone in another department?

The research suggests that companies can overcome knowledge hiding by having more direct contact and less email communication with employees, highlighting

examples of trustworthiness (people who share and use information well), and avoiding “betrayal” incentives, such as rewarding salespeople who poach another’s clients.

In knowing that employees sometimes undermine the effort by deliberately concealing information from their coworkers, the bottom line is organizations must review their culture and tackle the levels of distrust among employees, as they are key factors in determining whether and how people hide what they know.

It takes the right environment to create an effective knowledge sharing program and for such an environment to be nurtured, organizations need to look inwards at the type of culture they promote before investing in knowledge sharing tools. If you want to get value out of expensive knowledge management systems, you have to spend time and effort to ensure that all the people involved are willing to collaborate and share.

“A lot of companies have jumped on the bandwagon of knowledge sharing,” says Zweig. “It was a case of, ‘If you build it, they will come’. But they didn’t come. If you don’t work on creating that climate and establishing trust, it doesn’t matter how great the software is, people aren’t going to use it.”

http://www.internalcommshub.com/open/channels/casestudies/knowledgehiding.shtml