Power of Actors in Culture Environment influence Knowledge Sharing

Hall (2009) examines the impact of power on organization culture that impacts knowledge management initiatives.

As an example, Hall (2009) notes that knowledge management staff could be encouraged to devise means of promoting their work as more than an administrative burden.

However, due to power play and insufficient power by the knowledge management staff, these knowledge management initiatives may be ignored.

For example, in an organisation that trades on the qualifications of a specific set of professional staff, employees with professional qualifications that are not directly related to the revenue-generating activity are unlikely to enjoy a similar level of status. This means that they are not well placed to encourage their colleagues to comply with their wishes, for example, knowledge management staff find it difficult to persuade accountants to adopt corporate-wide tools for knowledge sharing.

Hall (2009) concluded that is therefore important to recognise the degree to which the organisational power of the knowledge management function can be enhanced, and how to devise strategies to compensate for circumstances that are difficult, or impossible, to change.

What do you think? How does power plays up?

Reference

Dr Hazel Hall, KM, culture and compromise: Devising practical interventions to promote knowledge sharing in corporate environments, [Online],[Available], [Accessed on 24 Feb 2009],
http://www.dcs.napier.ac.uk/~hazelh/esis/hall_ebic_05.pdf