Facilitating Knowledge Sharing: A Conceptual Framework

This paper argues that knowledge sharing can be conceptualized as different situations of exchange in which individuals relate to each other in different ways, involving different rules, norms and traditions of reciprocity regulating the exchange. The main challenge for facilitating knowledge sharing is to ensure that the exchange is seen as equitable for the parties involved, and by viewing the problems of knowledge sharing as motivational problems situated in different organizational settings, the paper explores how knowledge exchange can be conceptualized as going on in four distinct situations of exchange denominated organizational exchange yielding extrinsic rewards, organizational exchange yielding intrinsic rewards, financial exchange, and social exchange. The paper argues that each situation of exchange has distinct assumptions about individual behaviour and the intermediaries regulating the exchange, and facilitating knowledge sharing should therefore be viewed as a continuum of practices under the influence of opportunistic behaviour, obedience or organizational citizenship behaviour.