Knowledge sharing among public sector employees: evidence from Malaysia
Abstract: Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to: identify the views of public sector employees towards the importance of Knowledge Sharing (KS); identify the barriers to KS; and identify initiatives that may encourage KS.Design/methodology/approach – The design employed in this research was mainly descriptive in nature. A survey‐based methodology employing a research questionnaire was used to elicit the views of public sector employees towards KS. A total of 320 questionnaires were randomly distributed and 170 were successfully collected, giving a response rate of 60 percent.Findings – The results showed that the respondents were very positive in their views towards “importance of KS” and they also strongly felt that knowledge was a source of competitive advantage. However, they were of the view that the importance of knowledge sharing was not clearly communicated and many of them were not sure whether KS strategy existed in their department. The public sector employees also showed self‐serving biases when...
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Citations
307 citations
Cites background from "Knowledge sharing among public sect..."
...Few studies focus on knowledge sharing in the public sector (Sandhu et al., 2011; Yusof et al., 2012)....
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...In the past 20 years, significant changes have occurred in the public sector, moving from a traditional, bureaucratic approach to a more managerial one (Sandhu et al., 2011)....
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289 citations
Cites background or result from "Knowledge sharing among public sect..."
...The high level of positive attitudes and intentions with respect to knowledge sharing is consistent with previous research in other public sector organisations (e.g. Gorry, 2008; Sandhu et al., 2011)....
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...Managers also have a hand in the development of IT systems, reward systems, opportunities for interaction, and the availability of time for knowledge-sharing (Sandhu et al., 2011)....
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...…a strong body of research into knowledge management and knowledge sharing in commercial environments, and growing interest in knowledge management in public sector organisations (e.g. Brown and Brudney, 2003; Sandhu et al., 2011), research into knowledge management in universities is very limited....
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Cites background from "Knowledge sharing among public sect..."
..., 2013), information system personnel (Teh and Sun, 2012), public sector employees (Kumar and Che Rose, 2012; Sandhu et al., 2011), employees in the oil industry (Tohidinia and Mosakhani, 2010), employees in the hotel industry (Yang, 2007), teachers (Chen, 2011), construction team (Zhang and Ng, 2012), real estate employees (Will, 2012), librarians (Noaman and Fouad, 2014), virtual communities (Hassandoust et al....
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...Nevertheless, it is important to take note that public organisations today, not only are regarded as knowledge-intensive organisations (Sandhu et al., 2011) but also deal with excessive retirement and attrition....
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...One logical reason given for this limited focus is because of the non-profit nature of the public service organisations (Sandhu et al., 2011)....
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...It is highly acknowledged that public service managers play a key role in determining and implementing public policies (Taylor and Wright, 2004), and carry out very critical responsibilities on behalf of the government (Sandhu et al., 2011)....
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...However, the focus on public sector organisations was found to be relatively low as compared to the profit-orientated organisations (Razzaque et al., 2013; Sandhu et al., 2011)....
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References
41,990 citations
"Knowledge sharing among public sect..." refers methods in this paper
...To further reduce bias towards positive responses or answers which may result in common method error variance, we conducted factor analysis as suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2003)...
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17,255 citations
"Knowledge sharing among public sect..." refers background in this paper
...According to the resource based view, firms can maintain and achieve sustainable competitive advantage and earn superior profits if it owns and controls its tangible and intangible assets ( Wernerfelt, 1984...
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16,867 citations
16,363 citations
"Knowledge sharing among public sect..." refers background in this paper
...One of the most important theories in the field of KM was however developed by Nonaka (1994)...
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16,328 citations