Nonprofit organizations of all sizes wrestle with various management pressures.
Researchers such as Drucker (1995) indicated that when it comes to effective management, nonprofit organizations need to follow on the footsteps of their for-profit counterparts. Research conducted by KMPG (2000, 2003) has shown that by implementing KM, organizations expect to enhance their capability of managing their knowledge to achieve greater performance. KM is vital for nonprofit organizations whose effectiveness according to Hurley and Green (2005) depends on the transfer of its tacit and explicit knowledge.
Hurley and Green (2005) further noted that nonprofit sector’s failure to replicate successful programs is associated with the lack the critical processes and knowledge needed to help them develop, evaluate, document, and share successful programs. Nonprofits organizations’ success is not only defined by their mission and financial performance, but also by their knowledge performance which reflects their ability and capability to act on what has been learned, resulting in continuous improvement and innovation (Som et al., 2010). Therefore, the need to develop better projects or programs has urged nonprofit organizations to capitalize on their ability to tailor the prospective projects by using specialized knowledge. KM facilitates employees in the organization to rely on past experience and knowledge in conducting organization operations and subsequently to achieve superior performance. However, for employees to be able to tap into the knowledge available within the organization, knowledge sharing needs to take place. Lettieri et al. (2004, p.17) stated that ‘only by identifying and sharing the available knowledge spread across the organization can each worker operate appropriately’.
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Knowledge sharing is of paramount importance for nonprofit organizations success. In terms of organization success, studies have also shown that knowledge sharing can be an important mean to reach success. First, knowledge sharing has been associated with positive organization outcomes that include performance (e.g. Du et al., 2007; Hsu, 2008; Kang, Kim &
Chang, 2008); project success (e.g. Hawryszkiewycz, 2010; Ismail, Md Nor, & Marjani, 2009);
improved organizational learning (Hall, 2001); service delivery (e.g. Ismail & Yusof, 2009);
innovation (e.g. Liao, 2006; Lin, 2007c); customer and employee satisfaction (e.g. Bercerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2010; Ismail & Yusof, 2010).
Secondly, knowledge sharing can be a tool of strategic management. Various researchers have linked knowledge sharing to individuals’ desired behaviors such as organization commitment (e.g. Wong, Tong, & Mula, 2009); organization citizenship (e.g. Mogotsi, Boon, &
Fletcher, 2011); employee adaptability (e.g. Almahamid, McAdams & Kalaldeh, 2010).
Moreover, it has also been found to be negatively related with turnover intentions (Jacobs &
Roodt, 2007, 2011). At last, knowledge sharing helps to enhance employees’ learning and exposure to the latest knowledge in their fields. Geisler and Wickramasinghe (2009) stated that people experience improved literacy, skills, abilities, competence and experience higher sense of accomplishment and empowerment when they have access to usable knowledge and are able to adapt it to their current needs.
Despite the importance of knowledge sharing for the success and competitiveness for all types of organizations, few researches with the exception of those conducted by Vuong and Staples (2008) and Liu and Fang (2010) have put an emphasis on its occurrence in nonprofit organizations. Based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA), Voung and Staples (2008) drew on Bock and Kim (2005) knowledge sharing study to determine whether the findings for for-profit organizations would also be applicable to nonprofit organizations. In order to do so, they analyzed how the influence of individuals’ self rated expertise, commitment to organization, anticipated extrinsic and intrinsic incentives and perceptions of organization climate and norms for sharing affected their attitudes toward knowledge sharing by using a sample of 201 of volunteers and paid staff from various Canadian nonprofit organizations. Their findings indicated that while self-rated expertise had no significant impact on attitudes toward knowledge sharing, commitment to organization and extrinsic and intrinsic incentives combined with norms for
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sharing were significantly associated with positive attitudes toward knowledge sharing. The author also concluded that intrinsic incentives had greater influence on individuals’ attitudes toward knowledge sharing than extrinsic incentives.
Liu and Fang (2010) used a sample 336 of volunteers and full time staff of several Taiwanese nonprofit organizations to analyze the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on knowledge sharing behavior. The results suggested that individuals’ internal motivation had greater influence on knowledge sharing than external motivation. In addition findings from the study indicated that while hygiene factors were solely related with knowledge sharing behavior, reputation and mutual benefit factors and altruistic characteristics of internal motivation had a significant effect on knowledge sharing willingness and behavior.
Research has showed that while individuals may be inclined to voluntary share knowledge with their peers or co-workers, the organization contexts need to support their effort. For example, Janz and Prasarnphanich (2003) stated that organizations need to nurture and develop an environment in which employees are motivated to share what they know in order to improve their knowledge sharing efforts. Although, Bach, Lee, and Carroll (2009) acknowledged the presence of knowledge sharing technologies, and technologies such as e-mail, database store, document management systems, search engine that allow users to share knowledge in nonprofit organizations, little empirical study have addressed whether the organization contexts of these organizations promote employees’ knowledge sharing behavior. In this regard, this research intends to tease out the contextual factors that may support nonprofit organizations’ endeavors in achieving effective implementations of knowledge sharing strategies.
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