Employees Attitudes towards knowledge Sharing

Abstract

Knowledge sharing has been the focus of research for more than a decade and it is widely recognized that it can contribute to the success of an organization. However, in comparison with other countries, relatively little work on this topic has been done in the Sudanese context. This study examines the factors that affect employees attitudes towards knowledge sharing in the banks industry in Sudan. Three factors were selected as independent variables , namely individual factors construct of(social trust , social network , shared goals) organizational factors construct of (incentives system ,leadership style) and technological factors construct of ( information & communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, information & communication technology (ICT) tools and information & communication technology (ICT) know-how) those variables were tested against attitudes towards knowledge sharing and the last against intention towards knowledge sharing. The study also considers the influence of the control variables (gender and experience) on employees intention to share knowledge. Data were collected through survey method, and purposive sampling technique was used. A total of 279 usable responses from 31 banks were used for the purpose of this study. Factor and reliability analyses were performed and regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses. The findings provided empirical support for the theoretical framework. The results study revealed apositive relationship between social trust, social network, shared goals and employees intention to share knowledge . More over this study revealed strong relationship between incentives to share knowledge and employees attitudes towards knowledge sharing while the factor of leadership style shows insignificant impact on banks employees attitudes towards knowledge sharing .With regard to technological factors almost all variables indentified (except ICT know-how with attitudes towards knowledge sharing) have a significant relationship with both attitudes towards knowledge sharing and intention to share knowledge . These show that technology plays key roles in managing knowledge in an organization and can be considered as an effective means of capturing, storing, transforming and disseminating information ,the results supported the mediation effect of attitudes towards knowledge sharing on the relationship between individual ,organizational, technological factors and employees intention to share knowledge . Based on the study findings, theoretical and practical implications were discussed, limitations and suggestions for future research were also presented.