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Employee Contribution and Resistance

8 September, 2015 - 09:32

With the understanding of where knowledge harvesting occurs, the rewards or incentives for an employee to contribute knowledge can be explored. As a concrete definition, a reward is a condition that can motivate an employee to contribute knowledge with the expectation of receiving something in return (Coakes). Coakes explains research divided rewards into two categories, intrinsic and extrinsic. The extrinsic category of rewards includes increased salary or additional vacation time. As an example of an extrinsic reward, employees who contribute knowledge to a company system could be rewarded during performance reviews. The intrinsic category of rewards includes job satisfaction, decision making power, and improved career prospects. One particularly interesting example of an intrinsic reward can be seen in the case of the Xerox technician who received a standing ovation at a company conference because the technician had contributed many useful articles to Xerox’s knowledge management system (Brown). Knowing these rewards helps information systems builders understand what motivates employees to contribute to knowledge harvesting activities. Thus, understanding and utilizing rewards systems represents a substantial part of successful knowledge harvesting.

However, in spite of rewards, many employees consider reasons to resist information harvesting. Most popular among these reasons is self-preservation. A number of studies have found that in organizations implementing knowledge databases, organization members have been willing to use the system to search for information, but have been reluctant to submit their own information to the system (Cress 371). The sharing of information presents a social dilemma for members of an organization; information is often perceived as power, and sharing of information without a guarantee that others will do the same could mean the relinquishing of power and degradation of one’s position within the group (372). Another employee concern is the possibility that others will take credit for knowledge that an employee contributes. This concern is particularly strong in situations where a reward system can be abused to benefit those who steal ideas. Additionally, employees may feel that harvested knowledge will be used for negative purposes. As Harrison explains, on any team of computer programmers, there will always be a top performer and a bottom performer (6). With knowledge harvested about the performance of each team member, the intention of management becomes a concern for the employees. With positive intention, management could provide training and career development materials for the worst performers in the team. However, with negative intention, management could choose to fire the weakest performers. Finally, some industries and organizations have competitive cultures that encourage individualism and discourage cooperation. For example, stock brokers within a large financial firm might act as individualists in order to retain their clientele and to keep secret their investing strategies. With these reasons to resist knowledge harvesting, the systems and processes of knowledge harvesting face additional challenges to successful implementation.