The effect of organizational culture on knowledge sharing among administrative staff in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Abstract

Knowledge sharing is the primary source of gaining competitive advantage and achieving long term success. Knowledge sharing is affected by many factors and the foremost of them is the culture of an organization. Organizational culture helps develop knowledge sharing practices among the members of the organization and achieve organizational objectives. The aim of the present study is firstly, to find out how the culture affects knowledge sharing in UTM and which of the cultural factors are more prevalent in developing knowledge sharing practices; secondly, to determine the level of knowledge sharing among the academic staff holding administrative positions in various faculties and departments of the university. Using quantitative approach, data was collected through survey questionnaire from a sample of 132 respondents. The analysis was carried out using descriptive and inferential statistics. Three of the dimensions of OC, workgroup support, information technology, and social interaction are found to be most significant in UTM, while reward system is found to be insignificant. Knowledge sharing is found to be high among academic staff holding administrative posts. The study concludes that organizational culture factors, workgroup support, information technology and social interaction are the most important factors that are helping in enhancing knowledge sharing in UTM. Finally, some recommendations related to the future studies are also included like investigating all levels and incorporating both administrative and academic staff, comparison with other public sector universities and between public and private sector universities.