Knowledge management systems utilisation and knowledge sharing effectiveness: an empirical study of social antecedents in Malaysian organisations

Abstract

This study seeks to determine how social factors in organisations defined by cultural values for innovativeness and collaboration as well as motivating job design influence the use of knowledge management systems (KMS) and at same time build volitional (autonomous) motivation that sustains the utilisation. As the use of KMS is meant to add value to organisational knowledge management (KM) processes, both autonomous motivation to use and the utilisation of KMS are related to knowledge sharing effectiveness to explore the benefits accruing from KMS utilisation. Based on a survey of 306 KMS user, the existence of innovative norm in organisation was found to have substantial influence on KMS utilisation. Collaborative desire and motivating job design were found to be significant predictor of autonomous motivation to use, while autonomous motivation in turn was found to greatly influence the utilisation of KMS. Lastly, in making knowledge sharing effective in a knowledge sharing environment, both autonomous motivation to use and KMS utilisation were found to be playing prominent roles.