Knowledge sharing among workers: a study on their contribution through informal communication in Cyberjaya, Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysia, being a multi-racial society, faces the challenges of creating knowledge sharing capability in organisations, as cultural values are often reflected in the workplace by individual employees. For organisations, it is not clear whether this diversity has resulted in any form of competitive advantage. Studies have shown that various communities in Malaysia do not bring their respective cultures to work, and as such the company values prevail. This research is based on the demographic study of Informal Knowledge Sharing in Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia. After twelve years, Cyberjaya is approximately 25% developed, gradually expanding with the establishment of multinational and international organizations. Several flagship applications have been developed in MSC Malaysia to accelerate its growth. However, the expertise and knowledge shared among the workers are doubtful, especially at its initial growth stage. As Knowledge Management (KM) developed, Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998) became popular, even dominant ‘KM’ intervention. Soon it was supplemented with story-telling interventions encouraging knowledge workers to use stories to ‘sell’ KM internally, share knowledge and facilitate collaboration. This study will focus on knowledge sharing among workers, particularly the approach used to share knowledge through informal communication outside their organizations.

https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2009.01.011