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Issues of Organizational Culture

8 九月, 2015 - 09:32

Organizational culture can be defined as the “character or personality of the organization” (Ribiere 32). It encompasses the norms and values of the organization, as well as the accepted behaviors and actions of organization members. The culture of an organization has a significant impact on the sharing of knowledge among the organization’s members, a key influencing factor in a successful Knowledge Harvesting process. It is therefore essential for the organization to develop a culture in which knowledge sharing is encouraged.

While developing objective measures of organizational culture is a matter of debate, Davenport and Prusak have identified four main aspects of culture whose presence increases information sharing. The first, altruism, is a general feeling of goodwill in which members of an organization share their knowledge for the greater good of the organization, without expecting anything in return (Ribiere 51). Reciprocity, the second characteristic, is the belief that if one member of an organization contributes useful knowledge, others will also contribute knowledge that will help that member (52). The third factor, repute, is the belief by members of an organization that contributing knowledge will improve their reputation within the organization, which can lead to tangible benefits such as job security and bonuses. Trust is the final characteristic, considered the most important of the four. Without trust, Davenport and Prusak find that all knowledge management efforts will fail (54). Trust can be fostered internal job characteristics such as benefits as work environment, as well as external characteristics such as job satisfaction (57).

In his research into the factors affecting success of knowledge management initiatives, Ribiere defined success as growth of project resources, growth of knowledge shared within a team, valuable input from more than just one or two team members, and some evidence of financial return on investment (78). Among the organizations that had successful knowledge management initiatives, Ribiere identified high levels of trust and solidarity among organization members as characteristics that promote success (128). Cress et. al, found that members of an organization often overestimated the cost of contributing to a knowledge database, but when they understood the value of their contributions in relation to the actual costs, they were more likely to contribute their knowledge (Cress 375). They did discover, however, that in some extreme situations, members would not contribute information simply to hurt other members of the organization, even when it decreased their personal benefits (374). This shows the importance of altruism, reciprocity, repute, and trust as cultural factors within the organization; if these characteristics are present in the culture, it is unlikely that such extreme behavior would occur.