Knowledge Sharing Concept, Attitude and Influencing Factors: A Case with Indian Academic Librarians

Abstract

The objective of the study is to examine the librarians’ attitude towards knowledge sharing including its concept, potential benefits, communication channels, and influencing factors that may motivate or hinder knowledge sharing practices in academic libraries in India. A questionnaire was used for data collection, 91 LIS professionals from Indian academic libraries were surveyed. In addition, 10 in-depth interviews were conducted. The findings of the study show that understanding of knowledge sharing concepts among librarians is varied though most of them perceived knowledge sharing as “dissemination or exchange of knowledge (explicit and tacit) from one individual to another individual or group of people”. Moreover, librarians have a positive attitude towards knowledge sharing and believe that knowledge sharing improves the learning process and individual competencies as well as enhance the efficiency of library operations and services. Furthermore, email was found as the most preferred communication channel because of its accessibility, convenience, and personal warmness. Conspicuously, public recognition, rewards, knowledge self-efficacy and develop relations with colleagues were identified as key motivators and on the contrary, lack of trust, personal animosity, technological support and nepotism were found to be the major barriers for knowledge sharing practices. The findings of this study may be useful to the university authorities in India in designing and implementing an all-inclusive knowledge sharing strategy for LIS professionals.

Linking Ethical Leadership to Followers’ Knowledge Sharing: Mediating Role of Psychological Ownership and Moderating Role of Professional Commitment

“…Previous studies have identified a substantial correlation between a person’s commitment to their profession and willingness to share their expertise ( Chen et al, 2020 ; Zada et al, 2021 ). Additionally, KS may be nurtured and developed if employees have developed favorable attitudes and gestures toward an organization, which requires a lot of internal desire ( Khan and Ali, 2019 ; Tahir et al, 2019 ). Ethical leaders play an important role in shaping and assisting the professional lives of their workers so that they can participate in KS behavior ( Kuenzi et al, 2019 ).…”

Examining Voluntary Engagement Barriers in Knowledge Sharing Practices for Supply Chain Innovation

“…Paroutis and Al Saleh (2009) performed qualitative study followed by interviews of IT professionals and document review in a multi-national firm to discourse barriers to employees' willingness to use and/or contribute their knowledge to web 2.0 platforms. Subsequently, Kumaresan and Swrooprani (2013), Nazim and Mukherjee (2013), Khan and Ali (2019) discussed attribute, attitude and perceptions hindering KS among librarians. Similarly in KS partnerships, the role of learning partner (organization) is very important to gain shared benefits vis-à-vis taking adequate measures to solve hindrance, enhance monitoring and performance evaluation.…”