Kindred spirits : trust and knowledge sharing in the knowledge management literature

Date
2020-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
ENGLISH SUMMARY : Knowledge and its successful management is widely held to be a determinant of innovation and competitive advantage for businesses in the 21st century. Knowledge sharing is one of the key processes of knowledge management and is generally accepted to be largely social in nature. As a result trust is often held up as an essential determinant of knowledge sharing in the knowledge management literature. This thesis reviews the top echelons of the Knowledge Management (KM) literature in order to ascertain how the literature treats trust as a variable in relation to knowledge sharing. The results show that while trust is often mentioned as an important factor, only a small section of the articles explored trust in depth, and often this was done in conjunction with other factors. It also showed that, despite some consensus in the literature on conceptions of trust, methods were heavily weighted towards a wide range of survey-based measures. In order to address some of the shortcomings of these methods when applied to a dynamic phenomenon such as trust, a trust-as-process approach was described and offered as one of a set of recommendations to researchers.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : Kennis en die suksesvolle bestuur daarvan word algemeen beskou as ’n bepalende faktor vir innovasie en mededingende voordeel vir ondernemings in die 21ste eeu. Kennisdeling is een van die belangrikste prosesse van kennisbestuur en word algemeen aanvaar dat dit grotendeels sosiaal van aard is. Gevolglik word vertroue dikwels as ’n wesenlike bepaler van die deel van kennis in die literatuur oor kennisbestuur gehou. In hierdie tesis word die toonaangewende literatuur van die Kennisbestuur (KM) -literatuur bespreek om vas te stel hoe die literatuur vertroue as ’n veranderlike in verhouding tot kennisdeling beskou. Die resultate toon dat, hoewel vertroue dikwels as ’n belangrike faktor genoem word, slegs ’n klein gedeelte van die artikels vertroue in diepte ondersoek het, en dit is dikwels gedoen in samewerking met ander faktore. Dit het ook getoon dat, ondanks ’n mate van konsensus in die literatuur oor konsepte van vertroue, metodes swaar geweeg is in die rigting van ’n wye verskeidenheid opmetingsgebaseerde maatreëls. Om enkele van die tekortkominge van hierdie metodes aan te spreek wanneer dit toegepas word op ’n dinamiese verskynsel soos vertroue, is ’n vertrouens-as-proses benadering beskryf en aangebied as een van ’n stel aanbevelings aan navorsers.
Description
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2020.
Keywords
Knowledge sharing, Knowledge, Sociology of, Trust, Knowledge management -- Social aspects, UCTD
Citation