Download (1157Kb) - E-Ait

values of an organisation where people are free to suggest and make changes to
organisational superstructure. Buckman Laboratory is one example of the most successful
companies in knowledge sharing which implemented this open structure. Bob Buckman, a
retired CEO of the Buckman Laboratory in the interview with Peter A.C. Smith stated that
“Tacit knowledge is the most dynamic asset you have” says Buckman. “When you have
located it, liberated it through effective knowledge sharing, you get huge benefit; improved
innovation, better productivity”. In Buckman‟s case, during the early 1990‟s this led to an
increase in the organisation‟s revenue of almost 1,000 percent and their track record since
then has continued to show strong progress (Smith, 2005, p.529).
Knowledge sharing is one way to help the society have the equal share of what the
environment has to offer. Julian Cribb and Tjempaka Sari Hartomo in “sharing knowledge”
put forward the view that;
“at the end of the century which yielded more wealth, more discoveries and more
technologies than the previous 70 centuries of civilizations, there were more poor, more
disempowered, more wretched and more excluded, more hungry and diseased than ever.
While it extended lifetimes and brought wealth and privilege for one in ten people, the
greatest burgeoning of human knowledge had failed, on the whole, to deliver anything
approximating a fair sharing of benefits”. According to them, a possible explanation is
that the system that engendered it was shaped, not for sharing, but for exclusion and
domination (Cribb & Hartomo, 2002, p.2).
2.4. Factors affecting knowledge sharing.
Knowledge sharing has never been and will never be easy. For it to succeed, there are a
number of obstacles that need to be addressed. In their totality, we can best discuss them if
we categorise them with respect to their origins. The following review tries to unveil some of
the barriers hindering effective knowledge sharing. It will start by looking at some factors
pertaining to individuals, then organisational factors and wind up the section with
technological factors.
2.4.1. Individual or Human Factors.
This issue of trust is known to be of major concern in successful knowledge sharing. For
knowledge sharing to succeed, individuals need to trust each other. People tend to share with
those in whom they trust. According to Terra and Gordon, sociological and economic
research and experiments repeatedly demonstrate that people tend to have less trust in
18