Is rewards neccessary for KM sharing?

An integral part of any organization today is it’s rewards and recognition program. Regardless of the frequency, the goal is to ensure that the employee feels appreciated and that his/her work has not gone unnoticed. It also serves as a great way of pushing people to do better.

The bottom line is to figure out ways to motivate your people, and with Knowledge Management it is no different. One of the biggest challenges in Knowledge Management these days is getting people actively involved.

Unlike other initiatives which use a mix of the carrot and stick approach, KM can only be promoted using the carrot, you need to have passionate and motivated people at the helm if you want great results. Getting them on board by any means is what you should be aiming to do.

Now the challenge is, what motivates the average users to contribute towards the system? Is it the rewards or the recognition? While i do believe the latter is more coveted from what I’ve seen its a balance between both.

However, for the long term sustainability of any KM initiative there has to a be focused move from a rewards based system to one of recognition. For one, its cheaper , second and more importantly, studies done in corporates have shown that the single largest motivator amongst employees is recognition by their peers and superiors.

Knowledge Management is that perfect platform that enables even the youngest of employees’ to show case their ideas and talents on a corporate platform. It ensures that if you are good at what you do, your voice isn’t lost in the crowd. This, i feel is the biggest selling point of KM to the average employee. It goes without saying there has to be merit in the KM program itself and the benefits it brings.

Some examples of non-cash rewards systems for sharing knowledge include yahoo answers, wikipedia, open-source mass collabouration projects etc.

Janina Kugel and Cornelia Schostek (2004) found monetary rewards seem to have an immediate effect on motivation to share knowledge. Nevertheless, the quality of the knowledge shared can be inferior, and the attitude that knowledge is a private and non collective good is enforced. Once knowledge is shared only because monetary rewards are obtained, knowledge sharing will decrease when these rewards are withdrawn. Additionally to these consequences, high costs led us to focus on non monetary rewards that may not have an immediate, but a long-term impact on motivation. Therefore the use of monetary incentives should only be used with cautious. We believe that it could be considered a good incentive at the beginning of a knowledge management system to obtain a critical mass for a community, but should not be in place for a long time to avoid the negative effects

References :

Arjun Thomas | January 16, 2009, Rewards and Recognization for KM, http://pmtips.net/rewards-recognition-knowledge-management/

Janina KugelCornelia Schostek (2004), Rewards for knowledge sharing? http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/rewards-k-sharing