INTRODUCTION - Challenges and Solutions of Knowledge Sharing in University of The Gambia

This chapter gave an insight on the background of this study. Also, it highlighted the purposes of the study, the significance of the study, research questions, definitions of terms that this research was anchored on, and finally, it wrapped up with an overview of UTG.

Background of the Study

Knowledge has been the driving force behind the success of many organizations particularly the private sector. Several researches acknowledged that this was as a result of knowledge sharing including both tacit and explicit knowledge. Sharing knowledge especially tacit one among employees in organization can enhance quality service delivery and greater productivity thereby giving it that competitive advantage and uniqueness among its competitors.

The most valuable part of possessing knowledge is when it is shared because that can result into increase job performance and facilitate new knowledge creation (Ismail & Yusof, 2008).

The delivery of efficient and effective services in public sector has always been questioned in many developing countries which The Gambia is not an exception. This issue can be addressed through proper knowledge management and knowledge sharing. The success of society and organizations depend on how well they are able to share knowledge, learn from the knowledge they hold, and how they use it to create new values (Boateng & Agyemang, 2016).

However, how about if the person possessing that tacit knowledge is reluctant to share it with the colleagues or those in need of it? According to Ismail and Yusof (2008), knowledge sharing seems to be a very daunting challenge to the individual holder, and most often he/she will only share it if it will yield a beneficial result for the one sharing it. Some researchers believed that the individual’s unwillingness to share knowledge could be as a result of the organization’s culture or better still how well or to what extend the individual trusts the one that he/she wants to share the knowledge with as well as the means available to transfer from one individual to the other such as the availability of ICT (Syed-Ikhsan & Rowland, 2004).

Universities serve as centres of knowledge creation and knowledge sharing. There are other excellent universities in The Gambia one example is the American International University (AIU), but all those universities are privately owned. University of The Gambia or UTG as it is called is the only conventional public university in The Gambia. It was founded in 1998, but it was not until

March, 1999 that UTG began to offer courses, following a law passed by the National Assembly of The Gambia. Since then, the number of students enrolled each year continues to rise. The UTG has several schools which include: School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, School of Business and Public Administration, School of Education, School of law, School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, School of Information Technology and Communication amongst others (UTG Conditions of Service, 2016).

This study discussed how reward system, trust, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and leadership influenced knowledge sharing (KS). There were several studies that were conducted in relation to Knowledge Management and knowledge sharing in public sector organizations in various countries. However, research into knowledge management in universities was very limited. And as stated earlier, universities are learning centres, and that means they play very pivotal role in the creation of knowledge and in its propagation. In addition, they also take a very significant stance in sharing that created knowledge by working with businesses and other institutions both public and private to support innovation, social and cultural enterprise besides enhancing learning through their teaching as well as the conduct of research and training programmes (Fullwood, Rowley, & Delbridge, 2013).

With these great attributes associated with universities, there is a general belief that universities will be at the forefront in building and maintaining effective knowledge management and knowledge sharing strategies and put in place vibrant mechanisms as to how to manage and optimize their knowledge assets, but according to Fullwood et al. (2013) that is not the case.

An organization’s overall environment has a magnificent influence on knowledge sharing.

The overall organizational environment entails the environs and practices that are developed by organizations to enhance the manner in which they control their employees as well as facilitate their adoption of organizational values and beliefs. According to Gupta and Govindarajan (2000), organizational environment involves six major categories: Information systems, people, process, leadership, reward system, and organization structure.

Organization’s environment is seen as one of the factors that strongly affect effective knowledge creation, sharing and usage among employees in an organization (David & Fahey, 2000;

Leonard Barton, 1995; Pan & Scarbrough, 1999). Cook and Yanow (1993), stated that organizations are cultural entities in nature, and to buttress this notion, regardless of what they

(organizations) do to manage knowledge, the influence of the organization’s environment are indeed stronger (McDermott & O’Dell, 2001).

The organization’s environment determines the norms regarding knowledge sharing among and between employees in that organization (Jarvenpaa & Staples, 2001). Ipe (2003) said it is the organization’s environment that tells one what to do and what not to do regarding the processing of knowledge and the manner in which it should be communicated in organization.

Similarly, it is the environment that shapes assumptions about which knowledge is important. In addition, it controls the relationships between the different levels of knowledge i.e. organizational, group and individual. An organization’s culture does also shape the perceptions and behaviours of its employees, and it does this by establishing the context for social interactions within that particular organization (David & Fahey 2000; Trice & Beyer, 1993). The norms and practices in an organization that promote individual ownership of knowledge, will severely hinder the process of knowledge sharing within that particular organization because “organizational culture orients the mindset and action of every employee” (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995, p.167).

Corporate vision is also a very important component of organizational environment (Gold

& Malhotra 2001; Leonard-Barton, 1995). According to Gold and Malhotra (2001), it does not only demonstrate a sense of purpose of the organization but also facilitates a system of organizational values. O’Dell and Grayson (1998) explained that organizational values that influence knowledge sharing include the creation of a sense of involvement and contribution among employees.

Several authors such as Hislop (2009); McDermott and O’Dell (2001) acknowledged the crucial role that organization’s environment plays in terms of designing the organization’s knowledge management strategies and subsequently promoting and facilitating knowledge sharing.

The organization’s culture which falls under the broader organizational environment has a significant impact on the level of knowledge sharing between and among its employees (Walczak, 2005). Similarly, Hsu (2008) opined that for any knowledge management initiative to be successfully implemented, it should put into consideration the existing culture that exists within that organization’s environment. And some research findings on knowledge sharing regarding organizational aspect proposed five different variables. These include organizational structure and organizational culture which were captured by (Syed-Ikhsan & Rowland, 2004; Sharrat & Usoro,

2003). Rewards and recognitions, work process and office layout were highlighted by (Lee & Al-Hawamdeh, 2002).

Universities share lots of things in common, but their structures are different from those of the other public organizations and by extension commercial institutions. Lai and Lee (2007) therefore, explained that the nature of academic departments also have influence and Fullwood et al. (2013) believed that loyalty to the individual’s area of interest matters rather than the organization’s culture or environment, Lai and Lee (2007) further elaborated academics can be viewed.

Tippins (2003) explained that the way physical and psychological barriers hinder knowledge sharing, is the same way that the functional organizational structure of higher education institutions can also serve as barriers to knowledge sharing. This supports other research findings such as that of Disterer (2001). In his research on individual and social barriers to knowledge sharing, he highlighted some factors such as loss of power, uncertainty, language, and conflict avoidance among others. Disterer (2001) further expressed that there are lot of empirical findings which depict how the overall environment of the organization and cultural traits in particular such as employee's individual and social barriers are critical for knowledge management initiatives and knowledge sharing.

According to Wenger and Snyder (2000), knowledge sharing already exists in higher education through what they referred to as communities of practice as groups of individuals are linked together by their enthusiasm for sharing and spreading their knowledge. They opined that a lot of benefits can be derived by an organization from this practice of sharing of one’s tacit knowledge.

Once again, this study explored how the factors mentioned earlier will affect knowledge sharing at the University of The Gambia thereby contributing to the limited literature on KS at universities that share similar attributes with University of The Gambia and also help the UTG authorities to determine how these factors facilitate or hinder their staff willingness and readiness to share their Knowledge.

Problem Statement

Knowledge sharing can be defined as exchanging experiences, events, thoughts or understanding of anything (in general) with an expectation to gain more insights and understanding

about something for temporary curiosity (Sohail & Daud, 2009). Through knowledge sharing, the individual’s tacit knowledge which is unique to him and sometimes very difficult to be accessed turns into tacit knowledge for another person or party (Boateng & Agyemang, 2016).

According to Fullwood et al. (2013) in their research on knowledge sharing amongst academics in UK universities, there was a strong body of research conducted into knowledge management and knowledge sharing in commercial environments as well as in the public sector organizations. However, the trend of a research into knowledge management and knowledge sharing was very limited in universities. As a result, in the year 2000 according to Rowley as quoted by Fullwood et al. (2013) the question that was posed was whether higher education is ready for knowledge management?

Research Purposes

There was little research on the level of knowledge sharing in universities. University of The Gambia being a young university in the African continent in general and the West African region in particular has no literature regarding knowledge sharing. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to explore how reward, trust, Information and Communication Technology and Leadership promote or hinder knowledge sharing (KS) in University of The Gambia and also contribute to the limited literature on KS.

Research Questions

This research intends to explore how Organizational Culture and trust impacts on knowledge sharing and Organizational Performance at the University of The Gambia. Based on this, the research will aim to answer the following questions:

1. Does the reward system has an influence on Knowledge Sharing?

2. Does trust has an influence on Knowledge Sharing?

3. Does Information and Communication technology has influence on Knowledge Sharing?

4. Does leadership has influence on Knowledge Sharing?

Significance of the Research

Knowledge sharing is one of the most important components of knowledge management.

University is seen as the centre of knowledge creation and knowledge sharing. It is the place where

the workforce needed for all the disciplines by various organizations both public and private are trained and prepared for the various job openings. This is done through the teaching and learning that take place there as well as research and training programmes (Fullwood et al., 2013). It is important to note that inculcating the idea of knowledge sharing into these students will go a long way in helping the leadership of organizations that are toiling to encourage their employees to always share their knowledge- tacit knowledge for that matter to become a reality. There has been limited research conducted to determine the factors that might facilitate or hinder knowledge sharing in universities, and there was no research conducted on knowledge sharing on UTG.

Therefore, the focus of this study was to explore the factors that affect (facilitate or hinder) knowledge sharing in University of The Gambia (UTG) thereby also contributing to the limited literature. Again, it brought into limelight how the perceived factors facilitated or hindered knowledge sharing in University of The Gambia thereby helping the authorities to come up with solutions to solving or strengthening them.

Definitions of Terms

This part gave definitions of the variables in terms of theoretical and operational aspects.

The definitions for the former were based on the concept of the constructs whereas the definitions of the later were based on how the variables were measured.

Knowledge Sharing (KS)

Before defining the term knowledge sharing, a definition of the word knowledge is stated first. “Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experiences, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provide a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information” (Davenport & Prusak, 1998, p.5).

Other authors such as Ahmad and Daghfous (2010) defined knowledge as a state of knowing that establishes facts, concepts, principles, laws, casual relationships, insights, judgments, intuition, and feelings.

There were varying definitions of knowledge sharing. The other term that was also commonly use or that was interchangeable with the term knowledge sharing was knowledge Transfer. This according to Disterer (2001), was referred to as the sharing of knowledge either between individuals or among groups in an organization.

Moreover, for Mooradian, Renzl, and Matzler (2006), knowledge sharing was deﬁned as

“the endowment or acknowledgement of task information, know-how and feedback regarding a product or procedure, and they believed that this was in connection to a variety of managerial desirable outcomes including productivity, task completion time, organizational learning and innovativeness.

Alternatively, Boateng and Agyemang (2016), defined knowledge sharing as trading experiences, events, thoughts or understanding of almost everything and anything with an expectation to gain more insights and understanding about something for temporary curiosity. In this study, KS referred to the exchange of ideas, opinions, experiences, and information between and among the academic staff at UTG.

Rewards

A reward is a thing given in recognition of service, effort, or achievement (Oxford Living Dictionaries). In this study, reward referred to the monetary as well as the appreciation and recognition of the efforts of the academic staff that were ready and willing to share their knowledge.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Information and Communications Technology was defined as software and hardware that people in organizations use in order to do their tasks (Van den Brink, 2003). Also, according to www.techopedia.com, Information and communications technology (ICT) refers to all the technology that is used to handle telecommunications, broadcast media, intelligent building management systems, audiovisual processing and transmission systems, as well as network-based control and monitoring functions.

For this study, information and communication technology was referred to the availability and the use of Internet to access, retrieve and share knowledge.

Trust

Trust is a set of beliefs about the other party (trustee), which leads one (trustor) to believe that the trustee’s actions will have positive consequences for the trustor’s self (Islam, Hasan, Ahmed, & Ahmed, 2011).

Recent studies have stressed the importance of building social capital in knowledge sharing.

This basically means the relationship between and among employees in organizations have a great impact on trust and knowledge sharing (Levin, Cross, Abrams, & Lesser, 2002). In this study, the

term Trust focused on between and among staff in terms of confidentiality of the one sharing knowledge and the recipients of that knowledge.

Leadership

The perception of people on the term leadership varies. As such, there is no fixed definition of it. However, De Jong and Den Hartog (2007) defined Leadership as a process that deals with influencing other people towards achieving some desired outcomes or goals. In addition, Chemers (1997) defined it as the process of social influence where an individual can enlist the help and support of others in the accomplishment of a task.

Leadership in this study was defined as the support that UTG management gives to the staff in terms of the provision of funds and facilities for knowledge sharing.

An Overview of University of The Gambia

University of The Gambia (UTG) is the only public university in The Gambia. It was founded in 1998, but until March, 1999 that the UTG began to offer courses, following an Act of Parliament. In section 4 (1) of University of The Gambia Act, 1999, it was established based on six aims.

Aims of University of The Gambia

The aims of the University, as prescribed in Section 4 (1) of University of The Gambia Act, 1999:

 Provide higher education;

 Undertake research;

 Advance and disseminate knowledge;

 Further training and continuing education;

 Contribute to the social and economic development of The Gambia; and

Foster appropriate relationships with any person or institution, both nationally and internationally (UTG Conditions of Service, 2016).

Guided by these aims, UTG staff –both faculty and administrative work tirelessly towards achieving them. The number of students enrolled each semester continues to rise and it has trained and produced lot of talented people in The Gambia. Currently, lot of the top positions in government as well as in the private sector and parastatals are occupied by people who obtained their first degrees at UTG before proceeding for graduate programs either within The Gambia (UTG) if the area of study is available or abroad.

However, University of The Gambia is yet to get a main campus that can accommodate all the students’ dormitories and the staff offices. As such, the various schools are located within Banjul, Kanifing and Brikama administrative areas. UTG has several schools some of which offered both undergraduate and graduate programmes. This means some students sometimes have to travel or trek from one campus to the other. University of The Gambia’s various locations are found in table 1.1.

Table 1.1.

Various Schools in UTG

Number Name of the School Location of the Campus

1 School of Business and Public

4 School of Education The Gambia College Campus, Brikama, 5 School of Medicine and Allied

7 School of Arts and Sciences The Gambia College Campus, Brikama, 8 School of Agriculture and

Environmental Sciences

The Gambia College Campus, Brikama,

9 School of Public Health The Gambia College Campus, Brikama

Like many other public universities in Sub-Saharan Africa and some parts of the world, UTG relies on government funding, research grants as well as other intermittent gestures from philanthropists within and outside The Gambia. In addition, the students’ tuition fee also serves as a source of income for the institution. UTG employees serve or hold offices in the academic or administrative cadres. These employment appointments fall under different categories. However, it should be understood that there are also two important decision making bodies at UTG. These include the Senate and the Governing Council (UTG Conditions of Service, 2016). There are five

hundred and thirty-eight (538) staff at University of The Gambia. Two hundred and twenty (220) are faculty staff whereas the rest (318) are administrative and auxiliary staff. The faculty staff included Graduate Assistants, lecturers, professors, Associate Professors amongst others. On the other hand, the administrative staff included Administrative Assistants, Deputy Registrar, Registrar, Vice chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellors, Accountants etc. On the other hand, the auxiliary staff comprised the drivers, cleaners, securities etc.

Types of Appointments in University of The Gambia

The appointment of staff into to the academic cadre at University of The Gambia come in different forms and durations. These different types of appointments at UTG are discussed below.

Tenure Appointment

A member of staff, on his or her first employment, shall be subjected to a probationary period of three years during which, if he has performed to expectations, may be recommended by the Dean of Head of College, Faculty, School or Department to the Appointment and Promotions Committee

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