The Role of Demographic Variables on Knowledge-Sharing Behaviour among Academicians

Authors

  • Arenawati Sehat Haji Omar Institute Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak.
  • Shahren Ahmad Zaidi Adruce Institute Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak.

Keywords:

Demographics, Knowledge, KnowledgeSharing Behaviour, Academicians,

Abstract

Every organisation needs to recognize knowledge as an important asset for individuals as well as the organisation itself order to survive in competitive environment. Since knowledge sharing is a critical activity for academicians, it has to be enhanced by stimulating individuals to share their knowledge voluntarily with other individuals and to contribute to the organizational knowledge base. Hence, institutions should focus on motivating the academicians to share knowledge among themselves, across the departments, institutions, and industries; and to contribute to the knowledge base. Objective: To identify the role of demographic variables on knowledgesharing behaviour among academicians. Results: Every individual’s attitude is subject to his own personal traits and to the environment or surrounding that the individual belongs to or is attached with. In the university, knowledge is intensively created and disseminated through research and publication. This is the most probable due to the belief that individual knowledge is not necessarily easy to be retrieved. Thus academicians play their roles as knowledge providers by transferring and sharing their knowledge through written contributions, organisational communications, personal interaction, and communities of practices activities. Motivational factors may be categorized according to different age, gender, designation, and organizational tenure of the academicians. This topic prompts individuals to actually oblige in sharing the knowledge. The reason is due to the fact that knowledge-sharing actually give more benefits than pitfalls. Individuals should require motivation to exchange the knowledge for the organization to gain competitive advantage. Conclusion: This concept paper provides an insight on the role of demographic characteristics towards knowledge-sharing behaviour among the academicians.

References

G.-W. Bock, R. W. Zmud, Y.-G. Kim, and J.-N. Lee, "Behavioral Intention Formation in Knowledge Sharing: Examining the Roles of Extrinsic Motivators, Social-Psychological Forces, and Organizational Climate," MIS Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 1, 2005.

L. Baird, and J. C. Henderson, The knowledge engine: how to create fast cycles of knowledge-to performance and performance-toknowledge, San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2001.

E. Sallis and G. Jones, Knowledge management in education: Enhancing learning & education, London, UK: Kogan Page Ltd, 2002.

J. Rowley, “From learning organization to knowledge entrepreneur,” Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 7-15, 2000.

G. W. Bock and Y. G. Kim, “Breaking the Myths of Rewards: An Exploratory Study of Attitudes about Knowledge Sharing,” Information Resource Management Journal, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 14-21, 2002.

K. K. Jain, M. S. Sandhu, and G. K. Sidhu, “Knowledge sharing among academic staff: A case study of business schools in Klang Valley Malaysia,” Journal for the Advancement of Science & Arts, vol. 2, pp. 23–29, 2007.

H. Bircham-Connolly, J. Corner, S. Bowden, (2005). “An Empirical Study of the Impact of Question Structure on Receipient Attitude during Knowledge Sharing,” Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 1-10, 2005.

M. Sharratt and A. Usoro, “Understanding knowledge-sharing in online communities of practice,” Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 187-196, 2003.

M. S. Sohail and S. Daud, “Knowledge sharing in higher education institutions: Perspectives from Malaysia,” VINE, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 125-142, 2009.

B. Basu and K. Sengupta, “Accessing Success Factors of Knowledge Management Initiatives of Academic Institutions – a Case of an Indian Business School,” 2007. www.ejkm.com/issue/download.html?idArticle=111

A. Riege, “Three-dozen knowledge-sharing barriers managers must consider,” Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 18- 35, 2005.

A. S. Metcalfe, Knowledge management and higher education: A critical analysis, 2006.

P. Bordia, B. E. Irmer, and D. Abusah, “Differences in sharing knowledge interpersonally and via databases: The role of evaluation apprehension and perceived benefits,” European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 262–280, 2006.

H. F. Lin, “Knowledge sharing and firm innovative capability: an empirical study,” International Journal of Manpower, vol. 28, no. 3/4, pp. 315-332, 2007.

D. Constant, S. Kiesler, and L. Sproull, “What's Mine Is Ours, or Is It? A Study of Attitudes about Information Sharing,” Information Systems Research, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 400-421, 1994.

M. McLure Wasko and S. Faraj, “Why should I share? Examining social capital and knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice,” Special Issue on Information Technologies and Knowledge Management, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 35-57, 2005.

W.B Lin, “The Effect of Knowledge Sharing Model,” Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 1508-1521, 2008.

D. L. Miller and L. Karakowsky, “Gender influences as an impediment to knowledge sharing when men and women fail to seek peer feedback,” The journal of Pschology: Interdispilinary Applied, vol. 139, no. 2, pp. 101-118, 2005.

C. Lin, “Gender differs: Modelling knowledge sharing from a perspective of social network ties,” Asian Journal Of Social Psychology, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 236-241, 2006.

W. A. Taylor, “Computer-mediated knowledge sharing and individual user differences: An exploratory study,” European Journal of Information Systems, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 52 – 64, 2004.

H. Boateng, M. D. Dzandu, and F. G. Agyemang, “The effects of demographic variables on knowledge sharing,” Library Review, vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 216-228, 2014.

A. K. Ojha, “Impact of team demography on knowledge sharing in software project teams,” South Asian Journal of Management, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 67−78, 2005.

F. Slagter, “Knowledge management among the older workforce,” Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 82-96, 2007.

K. Jessica, Age and Knowledge Sharing. University of Phoenix Research.Research.phoenix.edu, 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2015, from https://research.phoenix.edu/research-centers/center-workplacediversity-research/blog/age-and-knowledge-sharing.

J. Nagamani and Katyayani, “Knowledge Sharing Practice among Academics: Assessing the role of demographic variables,” International Journal of Business Management & Research (IJBMR), vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 113-124, 2013.

P. Garg and R. Rastogi, “New model of job design: motivating employees’ performance,” The Journal of Management Development, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 572-587, 2005.

S.-J. Lou, Y.-S. Yang, R.-C. Shih & K.-H. Tseng, “A Study on the knowledge sharing behaviour of Information Management Instructors at Technological Universities in Taiwan,” World Transactions on Engineering and Technical Education, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 143-148, 2007.

J. Keyes, “Identifying the barriers of knowledge sharing in knowledge intensive organizations,” PhD Thesis, Graduate faculty of business and technology management, North Central University, USA, 2008.

M. Gumus, “The effect of communication on knowledge sharing in organizations,” Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, vol. 8, no. 3, 2007.

S. Watson and K. Hewett, “A multi-theoretical model of knowledge transfer in organizations: Determinants of knowledge contribution and knowledge reuse,” Journal of Management Studies, vol. 43, pp. 141- 173, 2006.

B. E. Irmer, P. Bordia, and D. Abusah, “Evaluation apprehension and perceived benefits in interpersonal and database knowledge sharing,” In: Dennis Nagas, Best Paper Proceedings of the Academy of Management Annual Conference. Academy of Management Annual Conference, Denver, USA, pp. B1-B6, 2002.

M. Bakker, R. T. A. J. Leenders, S. M. Gabbay, J. Kratzer, J. M. L. Van Engelen, “Is trust really social capital? Knowledge sharing in product development projects,” The Learning Organization, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 594–605, 2006.

K. Babalhavaeji, “Knowledge sharing behaviour influences: a case of Library and Information Science faculties in Iran,” Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1-14, 2011.

R. Shaari, A. Rajab, and H. Abdul Rahman, “What Deter Academia to Share Knowledge Within Research-Based University Status?,” World Academy of Science Engineering and Technology, no. 0073, Jan. 2013.

J. Gammelgaard, K. Husted, S. Michailova, “Knowledge-Sharing Behavior and Post-Acquisition Integration Failure,” Working Paper, 2004.

M. Alavi and D. E. Leidner, Knowledge Management Systems: Issues, Challenges and Benefits,Communications of Association of Information Systems, vol.1, 1999.

S. R. Kathiravelu, N. N. A. Mansor, and K. Kenny, “Factors Influencing Knowledge Sharing Behaviour (KSB) among Employees of Public Services in Malaysia,” International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 107-119, 2013.

O. Merlo, S. J. Bell, B. Mengüç, and G. J. Whitwell, Social capital, customer service, 2006.

Downloads

Published

2017-12-07

How to Cite

Haji Omar, A. S., & Ahmad Zaidi Adruce, S. (2017). The Role of Demographic Variables on Knowledge-Sharing Behaviour among Academicians. Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering (JTEC), 9(3-11), 111–114. Retrieved from https://jtec.utem.edu.my/jtec/article/view/3193

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 3-11: Computing Technology Towards A Sustainable Society

Section

Articles

License

TRANSFER OF COPYRIGHT AGREEMENT

The manuscript is herewith submitted for publication in the Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering (JTEC). It has not been published before, and it is not under consideration for publication in any other journals. It contains no material that is scandalous, obscene, libelous or otherwise contrary to law. When the manuscript is accepted for publication, I, as the author, hereby agree to transfer to JTEC, all rights including those pertaining to electronic forms and transmissions, under existing copyright laws, except for the following, which the author(s) specifically retain(s):

  1. All proprietary right other than copyright, such as patent rights
  2. The right to make further copies of all or part of the published article for my use in classroom teaching
  3. The right to reuse all or part of this manuscript in a compilation of my own works or in a textbook of which I am the author; and
  4. The right to make copies of the published work for internal distribution within the institution that employs me

I agree that copies made under these circumstances will continue to carry the copyright notice that appears in the original published work. I agree to inform my co-authors, if any, of the above terms. I certify that I have obtained written permission for the use of text, tables, and/or illustrations from any copyrighted source(s), and I agree to supply such written permission(s) to JTEC upon request.