Fostering knowledge sharing through people management practices

Abstract

This paper focuses on the issue of knowledge sharing, one of the key mechanisms by which knowledge transfer can take place within organizations. The aim of the paper is to identify the people management practices that will be most effective in fostering knowledge sharing. We begin with a theoretical analysis of the socio-psychological aspects of knowledge-sharing behaviour in order to identify the variables that facilitate and encourage sharing. We also include a thorough review of the research to date on knowledge sharing and related behaviours. After identifying the factors expected to influence knowledge-sharing behaviour, we then proceed to detail the key people management practices that, according to theory and research, should be most effective in fostering knowledge sharing in organizations.

Keywords:

• Knowledge sharing
• knowledge management
• human resource management
• people management practices
• social capital theory
• social dilemma theory

Acknowledgement

This research was funded in part by grant SEC2003-03797 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology to the first author and by grant SEC2002-02868 to the second author.