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The Role of Organizational Culture 233

The types of ideas that need to be disseminated for KM to be successfully imple-
mented include a change from perceiving knowledge and knowledge creation as being
a proprietary and a solo undertaking to a perception of participation and collabora-
tion. This idea can be linked back to earlier discussions on the social construction of
knowledge, and an understanding of the individual differences and organizational
contexts that can infl uence such perceptions.
A knowledge-sharing culture is one where knowledge sharing is the norm, not the
exception, where people are encouraged to work together, to collaborate and share,
and where they are rewarded for doing so. A paradigm shift has to occur from “ knowl-
edge is power ” to “ sharing knowledge is more powerful ” and culture will determine
what you can and will do with the knowledge assets of the organization.
Sveiby and Simons (2002) suggest that a collaborative climate is one the major
factors infl uencing effectiveness of knowledge work. They surveyed 8,277 respondents
from a diverse group of public and private organizations. The degree to which an
organizational culture is collaborative can be assessed, and this in turn will provide a
good indicator of how successful KM will be. It is not a surprise that the study found
that distance was bad for collaboration, that is, the more dispersed a company, the
less the climate is collaborative.
Gruber and Duxbury (2000) conducted an in-depth study of the research and
development department of a high technology company. They looked at the linkages
between organizational culture and knowledge sharing and used the variables of trust,
openness, top management support, and the reward structure of the organization to
try to explain any correlations. They interviewed 30 employees and their initial ques-
tions addressed the sharing of explicit knowledge. It was found that this was mostly
through databases, intranets, and shared drives, but 28 percent was still through face-
to-face contact (see table 7.3 ). The face-to-face sharing typically involved questions
such as “ Where is it? How do I get it? Who should I go see? ”

Table 7.3
Explicit knowledge sharing
Knowledge-sharing medium Percentage of respondents who selected this
Database (LotusNotes) 55 %
Intranet 40 %
Face-to-face 28 %
Shared drive 25 %

Source: From Gruber and Duxbury 2000.