The relationship between certain psychological factors and the sharing of knowledge

It has been prompted with regard to knowledge sharing that it decreases costs in organizations, aids development of new products, enhances group dynamics, and improves competitive skills of organizations (Cummings, 2004). However, in an organization, promotion of knowledge sharing can be an exigent process. It may lead to a sense of losing valuable asset, at a personal level (Argote et. al., 2001). One of the challenges encountered by managers presently is the promotion of creation of new knowledge and it's sharing (Kogut and Zander, 1992). Even the most advanced knowledge and administration designs which organizations utilize for endorsing knowledge sharing tend to fail sometimes because of certain interpersonal factors hampering individuals' intention and ability of sharing knowledge (Bock et. al., 2005). Many studies on knowledge sharing can be conducted in the context of interpersonal and group traits, organizational and cultural or motivational (Wang & Noe, 2010). Studies on knowledge exchange generally focused in the domains of information sciences (Wasko & Faraj, 2005), organizational behaviour (Bordia et al. 2006), psychology (Lin, 2007) and strategic management (Reagans & McEvily, 2003). Whatever domains are explored, it has been observed that the lack of concern related to the interpersonal aspects, which have the impact on knowledge exchange at the level of individual and organization, is the main reason for the failure of the knowledge management systems in the organizations (Voelpel, Dous, & Davenport, 2005)