KM Aspect: Knowledge Sharing and Trust in Organizations Report

This report delves into the crucial KM aspect of knowledge sharing and trust within organizations, as outlined in the La Trobe Business School's BUS5KMS assignment. The paper examines the impact of information systems and trust on knowledge sharing, highlighting trust as a significant factor influencing the willingness of stakeholders to share information. It reviews the literature on knowledge management, emphasizing the importance of creating a conducive environment for knowledge sharing, including the use of institutional repositories and the role of technology. The discussion explores challenges such as information ownership, lack of access, and the influence of trust on the sharing of health information. The report concludes that effective knowledge sharing is vital for organizational performance and suggests strategies to overcome barriers and promote a culture of trust, which is essential for successful knowledge management systems. The analysis includes a critical review of the literature and discussion of KMS implementation, with a comparison to KM theories.

KM aspect in the case study or organization that relate to, Knowledge Sharing and Trust
Name
Institution
Date

Abstract
Knowledge sharing occurs through information technology platforms which are managed
through information systems. This paper reviews the use of information systems in knowledge
management by organizations and discusses the effect of trust in information sharing between
organizations, employees and the public. Trust has been found as the major impediment to
information sharing, because it leads to reluctance to sharing information by different
stakeholders. There may also be lack of access to and also benefit to shared information due to
information ownership issues, lack of technological or cognitive support or the tendency of few
individuals in an organization to control management and use information databases.
Nevertheless, if these and other related challenges are solved, knowledge management systems
can contribute to improved overall performance of organizations. The review concludes
knowledge sharing is crucial to performance of different organizations and that there is need to
provide a condusive environment for knowledge sharing. This can be achieved by ensuring the
organization is trusted by different stakeholders.
Introduction
Knowledge is a valuable cultural and intellectual resource, which has been found to
influence organizational performance. Thus, Organizations have adopted a strategic approach to
knowledge management to enhance knowledge sharing through efficient knowledge
management systems. Researchers have coined various definitions to succinctly conceptualize
the meaning of "Knowledge" using a diversity of expressions, such as:"stock of expertise",”
adequate understanding of facts , concepts and their basic relationships ." (Bartol, 2012).
However, all these definitions remain contextual to the author and there isn't any explicitly clear-
cut definition acceptable to all authors. Additionally, Knowledge sharing has been misconstrued
to mean just exchange of information between two parties, without necessarily inferring the
meaning of information or usefulness of knowledge exchange. Although definitions of
knowledge and knowledge management lack clarity in an organization perspective, knowledge
has been vaguely defined as a set of useful information available to an organization, whereas
knowledge management (KM) is a holistic five-step process which involves identification,
creation, storage, sharing and application of knowledge (Young, 2010).The basic idea behind
knowledge management is to enhance “explicit knowledge ". It emerged in the 1980s due to

advancement and use of information technology. During this period, it was generally understood
that knowledge sharing could be enhanced by building large databases where organization files
would be stored in an intention to manage the knowledge of the employees. Nevertheless,
knowledge is a valuable intellectual or cultural resource which can be shared and its management
has been hypothesized to influence organizational performance.
Literature Review
The value of knowledge sharing is highly overestimated in management of organizations,
and learning has been regarded as the basis of innovation and continuous positive (McInerney,
2017). In every organization, there is a well-defined framework for knowledge sharing which is
permanently part of their organizational structure and have emphasized the importance of
knowledge sharing. Although the earlier views limited knowledge sharing to databases, which
could make available large volumes of data, which is still an important aspect of knowledge
management, it is important to understand that knowledge sharing occurs through effective
communication or conversation, reflection, questioning or learning from others. This requires a
supportive environment for knowledge sharing which permits personal expression freely, openly
and comfortably that supports free exchange of knowledge, rather than emphasis on building
large databases (Andolšek and Andolšek, 2015). Without a shift of focus from information
databases, it is noteworthy to bear in mind that in some organizations or institutions, there can be
enormous information only utilized by only a few people who control such databases with a
large number of people having limited or no access to available information. McNaughton and
Rao (2017) explore this concept of “knowledge anti-commons”, which is an emergent thinking
from their comparative analysis of deliberate applications of knowledge commons framework in
the Caribbean disaster management, which allows a concrete evaluation and systematic study of
the adapted knowledge by the commons as key players in situations which require their actions
and governance mechanisms. Knowledge sharing is the precursor of Knowledge management
system, which can be defined as the organization of knowledge relating to specific people, issues
or matters of certain concern in an organization for the purpose of sharing (Zhang, 2017).
Availability of crucial information relating to the organization serves to reduce the cost of
training employees (Young, 2010). Zhang (2017) also notes that it will benefit the newly hired
employees such as managers who waste time learning about the organization at the expense of

executing their duties thereby decreasing their job performance. Although to some extent it can
calibrate their mindset, this is subject to deliberation, but it can serve as a basis of good
management if the manager strives to supplement the available information with their own
findings. The review by Zang (2017), points out many inconclusive findings in the studies
concerning the relationship between KMS and job performance which serves as a major
motivation for future research to bridge the existing knowledge gaps in an attempt to provide a
better understanding of the relationship. It is possible to use a conceptual framework to explain
this relationship theoretically as a bail out of these paradoxical findings, which poses a challenge
in understanding findings from these contradictory studies.
Knowledge Management System is tailored to support an organization to achieve its
objectives by providing a platform for information sharing across the functional intra-
organizational boundaries or even across the boundary of different organizations (Dulipovici and
Robey, 2013). These are strategic aims envisioned for different IT projects, to link the
individuals working for the organization, partner organizations and even affiliate groups,
culminating to the success of its management. Organizations work in such a way that multiple
actors are positioned within the organization’s boundaries and countless others outside these
boundaries. This is the situation that should be addressed by knowledge management systems.
According to (Telaga et al., 2018), organizations strive to manage information within their
disposal, for example product prototyping requires the use of previous knowledge obtained from
an earlier project. However, if a project is poorly managed, there will be massive loss of
information; therefore it will bring a setback in contributing to current knowledge and future
knowledge on products or emerging issues.
In the manufacturing sector, it will hinder production of quality prototypes due to
knowledge limitation in product prototyping; hence a good knowledge management system
comes in handy. Although Research is intended to cultivate the culture of knowledge sharing, by
storing information and making it available when needed in future, some institutions protect their
electronic repositories through encoding, making information unavailable. The impact of the
internet and web technologies in knowledge sharing can be evaluated by organizing knowledge
in knowledge based organization. The use of web technologies such as GUI or use of publication
documents that support knowledge management can be evaluated from the user centered

perspective, if the user finds that these technologies are useful in knowledge organization and
sharing and effective in knowledge management, and then they can find useful application in the
organization. In this respect, Sołtysik-Piorunkiewicz (2015), finds it useful if this evaluation can
employ appropriate indicators in its scoring criteria. If KMS is clearly understood, it can be
easily implemented without any difficulty.
The challenge to its implementation rests in lack of engagement of employees who are
the key players in relaying this knowledge exchange this may be partly due to lack of support
for contextualization and absorptive capacity for this framework. Absorptive capacity refers to
the ability displayed by the employees to learn the new knowledge they are exposed to. The
framework of this implementation adopts a system of interaction between the users such that the
performance link can be elaborately understood through unique organizational structures
invented by the institution. There must be substantial contribution from each and every member
of the organization, therefore the need for knowledge flow across the boundaries of the
organization. Thus it is a common trend by most organizations to promote knowledge
management through institutional repositories. This justifies the reason why most universities
practice research collaboration and knowledge sharing as a means of achieving this goal (Tan,
2016). However, it has been reported that most of the knowledge management (KM) strategies
fail because of employees’ reluctance to share information through the existing knowledge
management systems.
Knowledge repositories are meant to improve organizational efficiency, creating an
enabling environment for institutional productivity and innovation (Taskin and Van Bunnen,
2015). Despite these and other benefits, adoption of knowledge repositories has been a major
huddle to most organizations because it requires every employee to contribute to the repository,
whereas employees like to adopt a personal repository which is conveniently accessible than a
central repository, and therefore are unwilling to contribute to it. The perceived usefulness of a
reposition thus diminishes if the employees find it comfortable to work from their personal
computers hence do not find it meaningful to contribute to an organization’s repository. Some
may face a barrier of accepting new technology that enhances knowledge sharing in their
organization. It has been further established that knowledge sharing is influenced by such factors

as job independence, willingness and commitment by colleague employees and supervisors to
contribute to the knowledge repositories and use them effectively.
The effect of knowledge repositories on the relationship between employees of an
organization, and between employees and the organization cannot be underrated. For instance in
different organizations, knowledge repositories can result in shift of ownership of knowledge
from individual ownership to the organization hence the individual may not fully benefit from
the knowledge subsequently. Most importantly, knowledge management will lead to
standardization which will benefit a large number of people. The use of knowledge repositories
can result in transformation of working relationships resulting to improvement of overall
performance of the organization.
Discussion
The study finds out that the perceptions of knowledge sharing in organizations differ in
many ways. Some key stakeholders may not trust organizations with the knowledge they have
for fear that the organization may take over ownership of the information making it difficult to
access it. Trust refers to the act or perception of integrity, fidelity, competency and
trustworthiness in information sharing and can be easily measured as an index of perception
using person’s correlation. It is however easily demonstrated when an individual is willing to
share his or her information with an organization. For instance, in health information sharing, the
public may not trust public health organizations in sharing their health information which in most
cases is considered and should be thus treated as confidential. Therefore, trust can be predicted
from knowledge attitudes, and beliefs that inform policies and practices for information sharing.
In health issues, getting the right information can be a key solution to many chronic ailments.
Knowledge management only occurs where there is favourabe environment for knowledge
sharing. The major hindrance to knowledge sharing is failure to implement institutional
repositories, which is partly due to reluctance of key players to share the information
contributing to the repositories. The basic idea behind knowledge management is to enhance
“explicit knowledge ". It emerged in the 1980s due to advancement and use of information
technology. During this period, it was generally understood that knowledge sharing could be
enhanced by building large databases where organization files would be stored in an intention to
manage the knowledge of the employees. Nevertheless, knowledge is a valuable intellectual or

cultural resource which can be shared and its management has been hypothesized to influence
organizational performance.
Conclusion
Data sharing across different sectors of an organization enables learning, provides access
to crucial information relating to health, security and even performance of the organization. This
helps the organizations to run their operations smoothly and efficiently. Despite the
aforementioned state of robust technology through advanced information technology, it poses a
challenge on who should manage and control access to information. There is also lack of
efficient policies to guide data and information through Information Technology (IT) platforms
which are tools developed for knowledge sharing. Thus, the public and employees of the
organization should trust the organizations to act in their best interest if they are to share
information freely. Most importantly, it is worthy to note that knowledge sharing is not merely
the transmission of information between two people but rather, the willingness and commitment
to infer and construct the meaning from two different experiences enjoyed by the two people
sharing this information.

References
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