Improving knowledge sharing in a Chinese IT company

Abstract

In modern organizations, knowledge is a crucial resource which provides a sustainable competence advantage in business and has a positive effect on project success. Organizations can obtain knowledge from different sources including the daily practices. Knowledge sharing is a complicated process where individual initiatives, organizational social ecology, technologies and knowledge management cycle should be inclusive. The author had worked in a Chinese IT company and observed the scenarios and challenges in the company’s routine work due to the lack of practice on knowledge sharing or poor quality of the shared knowledge. Accordingly, this thesis discusses the knowledge sharing practice in this company by drawing on the collected scenarios.

This thesis reviews the research on knowledge management, knowledge sharing and project success papers to establish a systematic and comprehensive understanding. A case study which includes observation and interviews is conducted, and a model is proposed to analyze the knowledge sharing problems in the case company.

The proposed model includes both a knowledge management cycle model and the extrinsic factors which affect knowledge sharing initiative and the quality of the shared knowledge. Furthermore, organizational strategies need to be linked with knowledge sharing as well. This is a comprehensive and holistic model where the relationship between extrinsic factors and three knowledge management cycle stages is specific explained.