INTRODUCTION - Examining the Effect of Motivation, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Creation Proces

This chapter provides a window for reader understanding for the conduct of this research.

It illustrates the various segments relevant to the chapter such as background of study, purpose, research questions, and research significances. It further to give explanations on the delimitations and limitations. In conclusion, it provides definitions of the key constructs as composed in the research framework for better comprehension.

Background of the Study

In the past two decades, the business community has witnessed and suffered significantly from the unfriendly economic turmoil of recent history. Thus, has affected businesses globally.

It has also left organizations with scars they are still struggling to heal. Hence with the trend of global business, organizations shouldn’t relent their efforts to ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in performance through adaptable vibrant mechanisms and strategic business plans that would catapult their businesses, enabling fruitful return on investment in order to survive and sustain the competition. As a result, organizational performance indicates the firm’s market and financial performance, which is positively related to the firm’s economic value (Slater & Narver, 1994). We view organizational performance in a competitive term (i.e., compared to relevant competitors), because a market-oriented culture has been posited as one of the firm’s competitive capabilities and source of advantage (Hunt & Morgan, 1995). It is imperative; therefore, organizations identify and understand the market composition and the value of those potential customers they wish to serve. However, the literature argues that a market-oriented culture provides a unifying focus of organizational efforts in the delivery of value to customers while also providing a comparative impetus with competitors’ activities (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990). As such, a market-oriented firm is more likely to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, to keep existing customers loyal; to attract new customers; and subsequently to attain the desired level of growth, market share and yield dividend for ultimate organization’s performance to be obvious and flourishing (Homburg & Pflesser, 2000).

In light of this, organizations in The Gambia especially profit-oriented organizations are not exempted from pursuing larger market dominant for increased organisational performance.

The Gambia’s Telecom company (Gamtel/Gamcel), being leader in both telecommunications and cellular services in the country recognises the presence of others (competitors) similar in operation and services. Thus, relent not its efforts and dynamics in the quest to provide better and quality service delivery to customers. The company endeavours to identify niche markets

and continue to engage in activities that would increase its dominance in the market. All geared towards promoting and enhancing organizational performance at its maximum.

However, to facilitate and strengthen organisational performance, human capital becomes imperative in this regard. Without efficient and effective employee engagement, company could find it daunting to overcome business challenges faced in both domestic and global, especially in the present-day business climate. Therefore, it is increasingly argued that organisations are best able to meet challenges would be based on those that can be able to acquire talents and make wise use of valuable, limited and inimitably resources (Mata F. J. et al., 1995). Human resources can fall into this category, as it is argued, particularly if they are effectively deployed through appropriate human resource and management practices of organisational structure (Barney & Wright, 1998). As a result, emphasis should be focused on the tasks organisations would execute to effectively manage their human resources.

It is evidence that human capital is enriched with ingenuity, potentials and resourcefulness, yet the know-how to display and manifest these inert capabilities necessary to propel organisational performance cannot function in the absence of knowledge. Therefore, knowledge is the core. For reasons of such a kind, knowledge management (KM) practices becomes central in organisations’ quest for obtaining greater competitive advantage. Through the establishment of vibrant and sound knowledge management practices such as knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, innovation could be trigger. Hence proper manipulation and engagement of employees would foster creativity and innovation in such knowledge environment, especially when it comes to its creation and sharing. The ultimate results of which would be elevating organisations’ status and increase its competitive advantage. Organisations must build on favourable strategies and business plans around KM so that it reflects their competitive outcome (Civi, 2000). Employee mobilisation and engagement in the knowledge creation processes and sharing is a vital component of self-actualisation on the employee’s side and a huge return on organisational performance at the other end. This is one of the reasons the research intends to look into, among others, the strategies (Gamtel/Gamcel) setup to promote and/or encourage knowledge creation process and sharing for continuous innovation, aimed at accelerating organisations’ performance. However, for better function and sustain competitiveness, new avenues must be pursued, retained, integrated, and create sound knowledge elements. The theory of knowledge creation depicts a firm as an entity to creating knowledge actively as explained by (Nonaka et al., 2000).

According to Nonaka and Toyama (2005), knowledge creation processes is considered important KM practices that could be utilised by firms for new ventures to engage in new

product development or marketing activities. Through knowledge conversion and creation, employees could be able to utilize individual tactic and collective knowledge to serve customers or clients. Such tacit and explicit knowledge is relevant to market-related knowledge they continued pursue. The process of knowledge creation is one thing; however, its sharing is another important issue which organisations should handle with optimal care otherwise it could lead to undesirable outcomes.

Undoubtedly, the willingness to take part in knowledge sharing is influenced by various factors. According to Osterloh and Weibel (2004), these are the degree of overlap in the transmitter’s and receiver’s knowledge bases, the degree of tacitly of the involved knowledge, the degree of complexity, failure sensitivity, perceived value by both the transmitter and the receiver, and the strategic context, e.g. exploration or exploitation knowledge. In this regard, for employee readiness to share knowledge depends largely on to what extent employees are motivated. It is obvious that employees’ knowledge sharing could have significant benefits on the organisation than the benefits on individual employees. This implies that knowledge sharing and employee motivation are intertwined and thus appropriate measures should be formulated to enhance adequate room for knowledge sharing. It is envisaged that through proper knowledge sharing, improved labour productivity, customer satisfaction and reduced costs would be evidence and realised.

Consequently, the undeniable role of motivation to boost employee moral for knowledge creation, innovation and knowledge sharing cannot be underestimated. In this context both motivating kinds have crucial roles to play, that is, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Each has its own dimension of added-value to employee participation and engagement. Whereas intrinsic motivation is nurtured by rewards as the activity itself, the source of extrinsic motivation are external controlling variables as explicit rewards, for example, money, threat and so on (Pierce & Cameron, 2002). From the perspective of self-determination theory, intrinsic motivation is increased in more autonomous work situations and results in more positive attitudinal and behavioural outcomes (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Connell, 1989).

Against this background (Osterloh & Frey, 2000) work on motivation, argument that external rewards crowd out intrinsic motivation and reduce the individual’s work effort because of incentives which are in conflict with the employee’s moral values and choices. For effective function and employees focus, organisations should instigate or instil – “ownership” to be able curb the conflicting situations that may arouse between the two motivating factors. Nurturing positive attitude and direction driven (goal-oriented) mechanism for employee motivation would in no small scale bridge the conflicting gaps between the two motives. Many a time, if

not all the time, employees are always inquisitive about what organisations can offer them. In other words, they pay more attention on extrinsically motivated schemes rather than intrinsic which in most instances keeps them changing jobs from one company to another. Deci & Ryan, (1985) stated that intrinsic motivation may lead to greater creativity and flexibility in task completion rate. Such creativity and flexibility may be more beneficial when the experimental task is complex than when it is simple.

Innovation as highlighted in the beginning, is one of the most difficult experiments organisations engage themselves in. It is through constant innovation organisations could compete and secure a large customer population, market share and boost financial performance.

Living in a digital world makes it even tough for organisations to compete, as technology has changed the looked of business and customer awareness. (Hitt et. al, 1991) argued, the capacity for innovation of firms to introduce recent and state of the earth technologies is at the core of strategic competitiveness. As such, the only way for a firm to grow and sustain competitiveness is by increased and steady upgrading of its resources and activities through innovation (Porter, 1990) also explained. It was further discussed in their various materials that innovation provide organisations a strategic orientation to combat the various challenges they may be faced with while striding to achieve sustainable competitive advantage (Drucker, 1985; Hitt et al., 2001;

Kuratko, 2005). Innovation as the process of equipping in new ideas, improved capabilities or increased utility promotes a firm’s overall outcome (Drucker, 1985). It could be realised that for any organisation to attain its strategic business objectives, innovation driven practices and avenues must be explored by employees for overall company performance.

Finally, in the realisation of this phenomenon, public organisations of which (Gamtel/

Gamcel) is not exceptional, should strive hard in a more proactive fashion in employee motivation, especially intrinsic motiving factors in order to tap the best out of their employees yet not forgetting the role extrinsic motivation could play as well. In so doing, a better work environment could be structured that would encourage knowledge creation, sharing and innovation. Apparently, this would accelerate organisational performance, enhance competitiveness and sustainability.

Purposes of the Study

Taking a close look at the research framework it could be realised that the purpose is to construct an integrated model for this the study. That is, examining the effect of each which one construct has on each other, and on the overall company performance as articulated in the research framework. The general focus of the research, therefore, shall be to propose an

integrated model which explores the effect of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic), knowledge creation process, knowledge sharing and innovation on company performance, which could be of good provision for company usage. As a result, the following were deemed the research purpose for this study:

1. To investigate the effect of intrinsic motivation on knowledge sharing.

2. To investigate the effect of extrinsic motivation on knowledge sharing.

3. To investigate the effect of knowledge creation on knowledge sharing.

4. To investigate the effect of knowledge sharing on innovation.

5. To investigate the effect of innovation on organisation performance.

Research Questions

Based on the research purposes, the following questions were articulated to construct the research framework in this study.

1. Does intrinsic motivation have effect on knowledge sharing?

2. Does extrinsic motivation have effect on knowledge sharing?

3. Does knowledge creation process have effect on knowledge sharing?

4. Does knowledge sharing have effect on innovation?

5. Does innovation has effect on organization performance?

Significance of the Study

The significance of this study by all indications is undoubtedly eminent considering the current trend of business. Individuals and organisations needs to be provided with adequate information on the role the constructs play in promoting performance. It must be acknowledged the numerous researchers had dwelled and elaborated on the constructs used in this study. Thus, outcomes of those researches have shown positive and significant effect on the construct on organization performance.

Most significantly, this study would be of immense contribution to the company understudy (Gamtel/Gamcel) for their quest to improve employee ingenuity and organisational effectiveness. Since human resources are the greatest assets of any organisation, endeavouring to meet employee expectations through vibrant motiving schemes would not only retain employees in the company but also allow them to be instrumental and proactive in the execution of their responsibilities.

It is also believed that this study would provide the company with a comprehensive report on the positive and significant effect of the constructs on company performance. As a result, help management to better understand the influence each variable has on employee perception

on the constructs. This way the management would identify their strengths and weakness, and ultimately keep up the positive aspects and tap ways of improving on their weakness. It would also provide the management with some of the uphill battles employees face during the process of either knowledge creation or sharing which may have possible consequences on innovation and as a result hinder performance.

In essence, this study would take a holistic approach and thus aims at exhausting any possible niche of inappropriate human resource practices for providing reliable and accurate information to the company.

Delimitations

The research considers some delimitation in order to manage the scope of the study. It would be tailored to The Gambia and particular focus on one public company, (Gamtel/Gamcel). In addition, the research is also delimited to (Gamtel/Gamcel) employees.

Meaning the entire respondents would come from employees of the company.

Limitations

Since this study is delimited to The Gambia, it implies that it is culturally bound, therefore, the results cannot be generalised to other organisations. Also, because people have different perceptions about the organisations they work for and respond differently to organisation environment, the findings of this study can be context specific and may not be applicable to members of other group of organisations (i.e., part-time employees, contract employees intern and experts from other institutions).

Definition of Key Terms Motivation

Ofoegbu (2004), described motivation as a term used to describe those processes, both initiative and rational by which people seek to satisfy; the basic drives, perceived needs and personal goals, which trigger off human behaviour.

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is defined as the act of doing an activity for benefit an individual derives from its inherent satisfactions rather than for some other external consequence (Ryan

& Deci, 2000). Thus, relates to the need for self-determination, the need for competence, and interest–excitement and flow. As a result, when people are intrinsically motivated, they found experiencing interest and enjoyment, they feel competent and self-determining, they perceive the core control of the outcome for their behaviour to be internal, and in some instances, they experience flow (Ryan & Deci, 2011).

Extrinsic Motivation

Deci and Ryan (2000), described extrinsic motivation as an act of doing activities for reciprocal separable benefits such as bonus, and other infringes. Extrinsic motivation refers to the individuals desire or tendency to perform activities for expected external rewards which could take in the form of kind or cash or could even be psychological such recognition, praise or other forms of organisation social status (Brown, 2007).

Knowledge Creation Process

Knowledge creation is a continuous process whereby individuals and groups within a firm and between firms share tacit and explicit knowledge Bloodgood and Salisbury (2001).

Organizational capability to create knowledge is the most important source of firms’

sustainable competitive advantage (Junnarkar, 1997; and Nonaka et al., 2000). Organisational knowledge creation is the capability of a company as a whole to create new knowledge, disseminate it throughout the organisation and embody it in products, services, and systems (Holste & Fields, 2010).

Innovation

Zahra and Covin (1994, p. 183-211) suggest that “Innovation is widely considered as the life blood of corporate survival and growth”. Furthermore, innovation is recognized to play a pivotal role in creating value and sustaining competitive advantage for any profit-oriented organisation. Bessant et al., (2005, p. 1366) on the role of innovation in renewal and growth emphasise “Innovation represents the core renewal process in any organization. Unless it changes what, it offers the world and the way in which it creates and delivers those offerings it risks its survival and growth prospects”. The significance of innovation is not restricted to business organizations.

Knowledge Sharing

Davenport (1997), has defined knowledge sharing as a voluntary act and also made it clear that sharing is different from reporting. According to Hendriks (1999), who is suggested that knowledge sharing could only take place between at least two parties, that is, one that possesses the knowledge and the other that acquires the knowledge? Bartol and Srivastava (2002) also in their efforts defined knowledge sharing as the action in which employees diffuse important information to others across the organization to boost productivity. Furthermore, knowledge sharing is a behaviour of transmitting or passing on one’s acquired knowledge with other members within an organization.

Organisational Performance

Tangen (2005) asserted that performance which includes a multidimensional variable encompasses factors such as competitiveness or excellence, profitability and productivity. The term performance is in most instances randomly used to describe everything from efficiency and effectiveness to improvement Stannack (1996, p. 38).

Company Background

The Gambia telecommunication and cellular company (Gametal/Gamcel) are two entities which provide communication services to Gambians. The two are both public companies with Gamtel been the parent company which leads to the establishment of Gamcel. The establishment of Gamcel was necessitated by the growing change in technology global. The Gambia not wanting to be left behind, prompted the government to challenge Gamtel management to setup a subsidiary company that would cater and oversee the GSM operations in the country. As a result, in 2000 the company Gamtel decided to create Gamcel to venture into GSM mobile services. It was until 2001, that Gamcel commenced operations. A full company overview of the two institutions is given below.

Gambia Telecommunication and Cellular Company – (Gamtel/Gamcel)

The Gambia Telecommunications Company Limited (Gamtel) is the primary provider of core telecommunication services in the Gambia. The company is a state owned, limited liability company, with the Gambia government owning 99% of shares and Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) owning 1% of shares was incorporated under the Companies Act 1955 as amended under Cap. 95. 02 of the Laws of the Gambia 1990. The Company has steadily created a modern, efficient network infrastructure, using state-of -the -art technology in order to respond to the increasing demand of a dynamic market.

During three decades of operations Gamtel has achieved and hit a countless number of targets, it commissioned a subsidiary GSM Operator Gambia Cellular Company LTD (GAMCEL) following its award of a license to operate a GSM mobile service in 2000 and among its latest ventures was the introduction of International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC), IP-MPLS/Virtual Private Network (VPN), Backhauling(Dark Fibre), Electronic Banking (E-BANKING) and still in the pipeline is Electronic Education (E-LEARNING), Electronic Commerce (E-COMMERCE) and Electronic Medicine (E-Health) all in an effort to deployed complete e-Solutions, based on market demand at the lowest possible cost to the customers by using the most modern and effective technology.

Gamcel, the National and Leading GSM Operator was established on the 25th-May-2001, as a subsidiary company of the giant telecommunications company Gamtel (Gambia Telecommunications Company). Since its inception, Gamcel has become a major service provider in voice and data in the Gambia; Gamcel has positioned itself as the only national and leading GSM operator that has a customer base of about five hundred thousand subscribers.

Being the first operator to start GSM mobile communication in the Gambian market, Gamcel has always been using its resources to provide its customers with one of the best and most reliable customer care services, maintaining its corporate and social responsibility by providing the community with the most beneficial promotions and services that are live changing. Gamcel has been able to for the first time in The Gambia offer affordable mobile communications to

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