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The Role of Organizational Culture 253

There are other characteristics of an organizational culture that can either encour-
age or discourage the recognition of belonging to the organization, and consequently,
they will infl uence the member ’ s performance in the open space. Some examples of
characteristics that are more connected with open space are individual initiative,
integration, reward system, and ethical climate. The facilitators should not ignore the
impact of organizational culture of the group of people who will attend the open
space. Further, the facilitators should prepare for the possible outcome that is expected
from them. Then the facilitators can work out some methods to encourage the par-
ticipants to understand and execute the essence of the open space.
Other good practices in encouraging a knowledge-friendly culture include: do not
impose top-down solutions, allow cultural change to evolve over a period of time,
provide positive role models wherever possible, create opportunities for people to get
to know one another, and focus on connecting people rather than capturing content.
Some illustrations are provided, covering GE, Viant, and ICL (boxes 7.3 – 7.5).
Some lessons learned from cultural change initiatives include:
• Provide information about the skills and experience of employees to overcome
problems arising from the absence or diffi culty of establishing personal relationships
(e.g., virtual organizations)
• Provide support mechanisms such as feedback for effective knowledge sharing to
take place
• Active knowledge transfer requires a bidirectional communication channel
• Develop common goals and mutual trust
• KM is an evolutionary process that must be embedded into organizational culture
• The introduction of new communication/information technologies that are capable
of enhancing knowledge sharing can be used to catalyze cultural changes by external-
izing tacit knowledge, by building up a permanent organizational memory, and by
including all members in a participatory development of content, rules, goals, and
systems
As Gruber and Duxbury (2000) discovered: “ We have to move to a transparent
organization. This means all kinds of information and knowledge is shared across the
whole organization. Everyone can fi nd out what everyone else is doing. Any kind of
information that infl uences me and my project have to be made available to everyone
else. ” Tapscott and Ticoll (2003) discuss the notion of organizational transparency and
the importance of having good values of honesty and openness and being successful
as an organization.