ICT Enabled Knowledge Sharing – Impact of ICT on Knowledge Sharing Barriers : The Case of Avanade

• Main Authors: Alamgir, Rana, Ahmed, Shahid
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för hållbar samhälls- och teknikutveckling 2011
• Subjects: Knowledge management; knowledge sharing; knowledge transfer; knowledge enterprise; barriers in knowledge sharing; knowledge sharing obstacles; ICT knowledge sharing; ICT enabled knowledge sharing; technology knowledge sharing.
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-12452

Studies in recent years have revealed that use of ICT can significantly impact knowledge sharing in organizations by enhancing the knowledge sharing process, reducing knowledge sharing barriers, and introducing technology barriers. While this has been identified in many studies and a significant research has been carried out to identify knowledge sharing barriers, there exists a considerable dearth of research when the question of ‘which knowledge sharing barriers can ICT reduce and how?’ is posed. This thesis aims to address this question by studying the case of an organization using ICT for knowledge sharing. The study was carried out using questionnaire and interview findings and results showed that if ICT is effectively used, a number of knowledge sharing barriers - in addition to time and space barriers - can be successfully reduced. Organizational and individual knowledge sharing barriers saw most reduction by ICT while technology barriers did not see any reduction by use of ICT alone. This is in coherence with different studies that use of ICT for knowledge sharing introduces its own technology barriers. However the results show that if employees are tech-savvy and management considerably supports employee involvement in the process of design and deployment of ICT enabled knowledge sharing, technology barriers can also be greatly reduced and even entirely eliminated.