Assembling The Project Compendium - Computing Technical ...

Another study suggests that often PMs rely on socialisation of explicit knowledge to avoid
the effort involved in extracting knowledge which is sometimes stored in a disorderly
fashion, too much, too little, difficult to analyse or take in (Henry et al., 2007). Their
research was explicitly related to PMs and included a wide sample size. Sense (2008; 2007a;
2007b), an author of many articles on the subject of learning within project teams shares a
similar view to that advocated by Fernie et al, (2003) that is personalisation, for example
project team meetings are required for effective knowledge sharing. The way in which
knowledge is transferred affects how knowledge is learned by project teams. Sense‟s (2008)
view about the importance of personalisation for knowledge sharing was not supported by
any primary research, although it was supported by many secondary literature sources.
Knowledge sharing is a heavily documented topic under the knowledge management
umbrella. Knowledge sharing is defined as the activity of transferring knowledge from one
person to another or to group or to an organisation according to Nonaka and Takeuchi
cited in Lee (Lee, 2001). Effective knowledge transfer within projects can help projects to
quickly achieve their objectives (Jackson and Klobas, 2008). Knowledge sharing highly
depends on an individual‟s willingness to share knowledge (Ajmal and Koskinen, 2008; Raghu
and Vinze, 2007). One study found that financial reward and status do not influence
people‟s propensity to share knowledge, rather people are motivated to share knowledge if
they believe it would help team success, feel that they are expected to do so and believe
sharing is valued. The limitation to these finding is that the sample group was culturally
mixed (Jewels, 2006). Culture is believed to have a large influence on one‟s propensity to
share knowledge (Lee, 2001). Lee (2001) and Jewels (2006) do not believe that culture
impacted their results however with such a small sample size such a statement is difficult to
validate.
Knowledge management and knowledge sharing appear to be supported by technology in
most circumstances (Jackson and Klobas, 2008; Jewels, 2006; Liebowitz and Megbolugbe,
2003). Despite such support, technology should not solely be relied upon for effective
knowledge sharing or other knowledge management activities. According to Bobbitt cited
in Rubenstein- Montano et al. (2001) and Raghu Vinze (2007) the influence of culture
(sociological and anthropological) on knowledge management must be taken into account.
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