Examining the Effect of Motivation, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Creation Process, and Innovation on The Gambia Telecom and Cellular Company’s Performance

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(1)Examining the Effect of Motivation, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Creation Process, and Innovation on The Gambia Telecom and Cellular Company’s Performance. by Abdou Ceesay. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Major: International Human Resource Development. Advisor: Tony, Cheng-Ping Shih, Ph.D.. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan. June, 2018.

(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I thank the Almighty Allah for guiding me through this strenuous journey. All this is possible due to Allah’s provision and sustenance bestowed upon me, as such I say “Alhamdulillah 3x”. Second, I would like to cease this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to my professor and advisor, Dr. Tony Shih for all the support and assistance given from day one. To be honest I’ve enjoyed working with you even though I sometimes feel stretched. Thank you very much Sir and you shall always be remembered in my life, wherever I may be. At this juncture, I would also like to extend my profound appreciation to my committee members, Dr. Lai and Dr. Lee for their time and effort to ensure that I have successfully completed this paper. The duo are extraordinary in character. I salute you for your great contributions, comments and suggestions. Third, a huge applause to all the professors in the IHRD family, Dr. Yeh, Dr. Chang, Dr. Lu, Dr. Lin, Dr. Cheng and Dr. Chen. Not forgetting the visiting teachers as well Dr. Korte and Dr. Miller. All of you have in one way or another contributed immensely to the success I am bragging today. A million thanks to you all. The echo of your voices shall remain with me for the rest of my life. In the same vein, I would like to also register my profound gratitude to the secretary, Jessica and her team in the office for their support and assistance. Thank you all. Forth, I would like to thank all my classmates for their help either direct or indirect. Most profound appreciation go to Alvaro for allowing me use his laptop to conduct my data analysis. Thank you and stay blessed. To my brother, Yankuba B. Manga at Taipei Medical University (TMU) I say a big thanks to you for your support and assistance. I won’t do justice without extending my sincere appreciation to Mr. Bakary Fatty my contact person in the Gambia for his tremendously help in the data collection process. Thank you Mr. Fatty. On a final note, I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to my family, friends and love ones who in one way or the other showed their commitment in helping me to accomplish my dreams. Your support, encouragement and prayers have paid dividend at last..

(3) ABSTRACT In today’s global business, competition is fierce and is gaining momentum across frontiers, and organisations are working hard to keep performance steady and sustainable. The phenomenon of organisation performance is not peculiar in the management science researches, as such numerous studies has been conducted on it. However, measuring it was considered a difficult task in the sense it entails critical and salient dimensions that sometimes makes it hard to measure. Therefore, it’s multidimensional. Notwithstanding the magnitude of study on organisational performance, focus on sub-Saharan countries, especially in The Gambia has limited literatures. This study aims to examine the effect of motivation, knowledge creation process, knowledge sharing, and innovation on The Gambia Telecom and Cellular Company’s performance. It is important to note that this study is non-comparative instead treating the two companies as one based on their commonalities both in terms of management practices and operation mode. Most importantly, for easy access to diverse employees for convenient data collection, thus help present justifiable and reasonable results. The research approach was typically quantitative and Partial Least Squares (PLS) was purely used to analyse the obtained data, with a total of 206 valid participants who completed online questionnaires. The participants of this study included employees of both (Gamtel/Gamcel), which excluded auxiliary staff, contract staff and trainees. The results reveal that both motiving factors has a positive and significant effect on knowledge sharing. Likewise, knowledge sharing and innovation has positive and significant effect on organizational performance. On the other hand, knowledge creation process has a weak effect on knowledge sharing thus the null hypothesis for this relationship was accepted.. Keywords: motivation, knowledge creation process, innovation, knowledge sharing, organisational performance. I.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................ I TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... II LIST OF TABLES ..............................................................................................................IV LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................VI CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 Background of the Study................................................................................................ 1 Purposes of the Study ..................................................................................................... 4 Research Questions ........................................................................................................ 5 Significance of the Study ............................................................................................... 5 Delimitations .................................................................................................................. 6 Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 6 Definition of Key Terms ................................................................................................ 6 Company Background .................................................................................................... 8. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................... 10 Motivation Theory ....................................................................................................... 10 Intrinsic Motivation ...................................................................................................... 12 Extrinsic Motivation .................................................................................................... 17 Knowledge Sharing ...................................................................................................... 21 Knowledge Creation Process ....................................................................................... 23 Innovation .................................................................................................................... 28 Organisational Performance ......................................................................................... 30. CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................... 34 Research Framework .................................................................................................... 34 Research Hypothesis .................................................................................................... 34 Research Procedure ...................................................................................................... 35 Data Collection............................................................................................................. 35 Measurement Instrument .............................................................................................. 36 Construct Coding and Scales ....................................................................................... 37 Reliability and Validity ................................................................................................ 43 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................... 45 II.

(5) CHAPTER IV PILOT AND MAIN STUDY RESULTS ..................................... 46 PLS Result for Pilot Study ........................................................................................... 46 PLS Results for Main Study......................................................................................... 49 Correlation Analysis..................................................................................................... 58 Reliability and Validity Analysis ................................................................................. 62 Research Model Testing............................................................................................... 65. CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS....................... 69 Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 69 Research Recommendations ........................................................................................ 71 Recommendation for Future Research ......................................................................... 72. REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX A: COVER LETTER ................................................................................. 85 APPENDIX B: QUESTIONNAIRES............................................................................ 86 APPENDIX C: PLS PILOT STUDY RESULTS ....................................................... 93 APPENDIX D: PLS MAIN STUDY RESULTS ........................................................ 99. III.

(6) LIT OF TABLES Table 2.1.. Definitions of Competence ................................................................................ 15. Table 2.2.. Features of Knowledge Conversion Mode (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) .......... 27. Table 3.1.. Items Measuring Intrinsic Motivation ............................................................... 37. Table 3.2.. Items Measuring Extrinsic Motivation .............................................................. 38. Table 3.3.. Items Measuring Knowledge Creation Process ................................................. 39. Table 3.4.. Items Measuring Innovation .............................................................................. 40. Table 3.5.. Items Measuring Knowledge Sharing ............................................................... 41. Table 3.6.. Items Measuring Organizational Performance .................................................. 42. Table 3.7.. Summary of Instrument Used in This Study ..................................................... 43. Table 3.8.. Reliability of Instrument .................................................................................... 44. Table 3.9.. Validity of Instrument ........................................................................................ 44. Table 4.1.. Cronbach’s Alpha Results for Pilot Study (N=53) ............................................. 47. Table 4.2.. Factor Loadings of All Items via PLS Pilot Study (N=53) ................................ 48. Table 4.3.. Path Analysis Result via PLS Pilot Study (N=53) ............................................. 49. Table 4.4.. Sample Characteristics Based on Demographic Variables (N=206) .................. 51. Table 4.5.. Intrinsic Motivation via a 5-point Likert Scale (N=206) .................................... 52. Table 4.6.. Extrinsic Motivation via a 5-point Likert Scale (N=206)................................... 53. Table 4.7.. Knowledge Creation Process via a 5-point Likert Scale (N=206) ..................... 54. Table 4.8.. Knowledge Sharing via a 5-point Likert Scale (N=206) .................................... 55. Table 4.9.. Innovation via a Likert Scale (N=206) ............................................................... 56. Table 4.10. Organizational Performance via a 5-point Likert Scale (N=206) ....................... 58 Table 4.11. Correlation among All the Constructs via PLS (N=206) .................................... 59 Table 4.12. Collinearity Statistic (VIF) among All the Construct via PLS (N=206)............. 59 Table 4.13. Correlation Analysis for Main Study via PLS (N=206) ..................................... 60 Table 4.14. Cronbach’s Alpha Results for All Constructs via PLS (N=206) ........................ 62 Table 4.15. Composite Reliability and AVE Results via PLS (N=206) ................................ 63 Table 4.16. Heterotrait-Monotrait Raito Results for All Constructs via PLS (N=206) ......... 64 Table 4.17. Fornell-Larcker Criterion Results for All Constructs via PLS (N=206) ............. 64 Table 4.18. Outer Loadings and Internal Consistency Reliability Analysis via PLS (N=206).. … ........................................................................................................................ 65 Table 4.19. Hypotheses Testing Results via PLS (N=206)..................................................... 66 Table 4.20. Path Coefficients Results for All Constructs via PLS (N=206) ........................... 67. IV.

(7) Table 4.21. Total Direct Effects of All Constructs via PLS (N=206) ..................................... 68 Table 4.22. Indirect Effects Results for All Constructs via PLS (N=206).............................. 68. V.

(8) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1. The SECI spiral of knowledge creation by (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1996) ........ 25. Figure 3.1. IEKKIP model research framework by Shih and Abdou ................................. 34. Figure 3.2. Research procedure .......................................................................................... 35. Figure 4.1. PLS structural model (N=206) ......................................................................... 67. VI.

(9) CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. 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. 1.

(10) 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 2.

(11) 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 3.

(12) 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. 4.

(13) 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 5.

(14) 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). 6.

(15) 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.. 7.

(16) 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.. 8.

(17) Gamcel, the National and Leading GSM Operator was established on the 25th-May2001, 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 the doorstep of Gambians in the Greater Banjul Area and in the provinces. It has also launched 3G data services to cater for the ever-growing need for data. The company’s mission is to satisfy its customers by offering a GSM service of international standard, professional, and user-friendly, and accessible to ever widening segments of the Gambia population. The company is a public organisation and operates on two (2) types services namely: prepaid and post-paid. The prepaid has the larger customer base of 97%, where customers talk as they paid while the post-paid just cover 3% of the customer base. Unlike the prepaid which is cash payment system, the post-paid is a monthly invoice payment where customers are contracted.. 9.

(18) CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW. The primary objective(s) of establishing an organisation in business is mostly geared towards profit making. This could be obvious as articulated in organisation’s strategic goals and/or objectives which are profit-driven, capturing arrays of dimensions to measure growth and success. In respect of this, organisational performance has ever since been on the limelight in the business community both in the public and private sectors. However, measure of organisational performance has become critical and hard especially in the public sector. Brewer and Selden (2000, p.689) as cited by (Kim, 2005), proposed a measure of organizational performance based on the perceptions of the organization’s members, that members in an organisation have a central role to play if organisations yearn for growth and sustenance. As such it is becoming increasingly demanding and top priority for CEOs and managers to formulate tangible mechanisms that would propel organisational performance through employee uplifting schemes. Due to lack of employee inclusion and motivation, public organisations have been underperforming especially those in developing countries. This research would like to take through The Gambia Telecom and Cellular companies (Gamtel/Gamcel) renowned public companies in the domain of communication in The Gambia. To explore the degree of performance and the level of employee motivation through several of the different indictors. However, been cognisance of the diverse factors that may push or put an organisation in the spotlight of business, thus attract both employees and customers could vary significantly. In this chapter, therefore, the researcher intends to provide literature reviews on the variables as indicative in the research framework and also illustrate the effect of the variables such as intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, knowledge creation process, knowledge sharing, innovation on organisational performance in an understandable and simplify manner.. Motivation Theory Motivation has been a discussed phenomenon in the academia of elites for quite a long now, and many papers, articles, books and other materials have discussed its contributions to both the learning system and organisational development. Where students’ self-determination and enthusiasm to learn vindicates this statement and employee work engagement and support for attaining organisational goals/objectives transcends due to some factor effects of motivation.. 10.

(19) Understanding what motivated employees and how they were motivated was the focus of many researchers following the publication of the Hawthorne Study Results (Terpstra, 1979). However, in this study the researcher is focused not only on individual theories of motivation instead the research seeks to focus on how employees maybe motivated intrinsically and extrinsically in order to reap overwhelming organisational fruitfulness. Thus, this would involve the interplay of knowledge sharing and creation, and innovation. Hence, five major approaches that have led to our understanding of motivation are Maslow's need-hierarchy theory, Herzberg's two- factor theory, Vroom's expectancy theory, Adams' equity theory, and Skinner's reinforcement theory. These theories have significantly changed and shaped employee and manager behaviour and organisational overall understanding of the potential role motivation yields for company attractiveness and performance. This paper seeks not to elaborate on each individual theory but to give a synopsis of the theories for better understanding of the concept of motivation and its related dimensions. Therefore, a brief illustration is provided below regarding the five approaches. According to Maslow (1943), employees have five levels motivation that quench their state of satisfaction which includes, physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. He went on to argue that motivation for another level is never obtained unless the lower level needs are fulfilled. Therefore, employees in organisation are nothing more humans and there exists no difference between them and others, hence a lower level needs must be attained before the higher-level needs could motivate employees. Herzberg's work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators and hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959). In their proclamation, motivator or intrinsic factors, such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction. This indicates that individuals are motivated to doing an activity because of several reasons and purposes, which they classified as motivators and hygienes factors. Vroom's theory on the other hand, implies that performance is realised through employee effort while performance would lead to rewards (Vroom, 1964). Based on this idea, rewards may be either positive or negative. It therefore, assumes that the more positive the reward the more likely the employee would be highly motivated. Opposite to that, the more negative the reward the less likely the employee would be motivated. Adams' theory states that employees anticipate for equity between themselves and other workers. Equity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965). 11.

(20) Skinner's theory simply states those employees' behaviours that lead to positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviours that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated (Skinner, 1953). Therefore, it is the duty of managers to positively reinforce employee behaviours that would lead to positive outcome and also negatively reinforce employee behaviour that could lead to negative outcomes. In this regard, many contemporary authors have also defined the concept of motivation in an effort to contribute their quarter to the already existing resources. As mentioned in his work, (Kreitner, 1995), defined motivation as the psychological process that gives behaviour purpose and direction. A tendency to behave in a purposive manner to achieve a specific and unmet needs (Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner, 1995) as described. In connection to these definitions, therefore, motivation could be seen as an integral part of organisation’s mandate in fulfilling its goals/objectives. Thus, motivation may be triggered by different factors which could either be intrinsic or extrinsic. However, in this paper, the researcher limits on to two main kinds as illustrated in the research framework. Therefore, focus would be on the intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors. The company (Gamtel/Gamcel) being a public enterprise, to identify the effect between the two motivating factors would be of immense contributions to the company in their quest to maximise profit. Not losing sight of the potential influence of other competitors, the organisation would endeavour to strategize and formulate better motivating systems that would keep employees progressive and striving to be creative in terms of knowledge processing, innovation and willingness to share knowledge for organisation’s overall performance.. Intrinsic Motivation It is a fundamental value for organisations and companies to realise the exceptional role intrinsic motivation in igniting employee ambition to become a productive asset of the organisation or company. Therefore, without any reservation intrinsic motivation must be trigger and encouraged by CEOs and managers, this to propel organisational performance and competitiveness through active engagement in knowledge sharing. Intrinsic motivation (IM) according to Deci (1975) refers to engaging in an activity purely for the pleasure and satisfaction derived from doing the activity. He further explained the concept that when an individual is intrinsically motivated he or she will display a desired behaviour voluntarily, in the absence of any material reward. In their study, Vallerand (2000) found that athletes who voluntarily go to practice because they find it interesting and satisfying to learn more about their sport ability, or athletes. 12.

(21) who practice their sport for the pleasure of constantly trying to excel themselves are considered intrinsically motivated toward their sport. In this explanation, it could be realised that individuals are pushed to doing an activity volition to accomplish a certain inner feeling, satisfaction or desire. Hence in trying to satisfy that inner feeling/satisfaction or desire they protract on the activity regardless of the process or pain endured. In an organisational context, therefore, employees who are intrinsically motivated may be fascinated to engage in whichever way and could be passionate for innovation or render expertise to organisation’s members without expecting any external reward or compensation. Therefore, according to Vallerand (1997) he described intrinsic motivation as the pleasure and inherent satisfaction a person derives from doing a specific activity. These activities in an organisational setup could include; innovation, knowledge sharing, and so on. And could bring about a display of individual tacit knowledge into moonlight which if properly disseminated could further catapult organisational growth and success as speculated.. Intrinsic Motivation towards Enjoyment in Helping Others Intrinsic motivation towards the enjoyment in helping others is indeed dramatic and a significant form of generosity and willingness that employees within an organisation could offer. It is a process that may be cumbersome at some point but its importance cannot be overemphasised. The enjoyment in helping others is a phenomenon which stems from the altruism theory. As such, Organ (1988) defined it as an act of discretionary behaviours that help specific others with organizational relevant tasks or problems. In the same vein, Constant et al. (1994 & 1996; Davenport & Prusak, 1998), all acknowledged that knowledge workers may be motivated by relative altruism owing to their desire to help others. Previous research also indicates that employees are intrinsically motivated to contribute their knowledge because engaging in intellectual pursuits and solving problems is either challenging or pleasurable, and because they enjoy helping others gives the show a completely different meaning and dimension, (Wasko & Faraj, 2000 & 2005) in their piece.. Intrinsic Motivation regarding Knowledge Self-Efficacy In today’s changing business environment, the trend of business focuses much on employee participation and collaboration in areas of knowledge nurturing such that employee knowledge self-efficacy is increasing becoming vital and instrumental. It could be of relevant importance if employee tacit knowledge could be tapped through sound interactive and teamwork spirit for ingenuity.. 13.

(22) However, employee intrinsic motivation with regards knowledge self-efficacy is significantly important for organisational performance and success. Considering the role of intrinsic motivation on employee behaviour to render expertise (Deci, 1975) described from an intrinsic motivational perspective, that behaviour is evoked by the need of employees to feel competence and self-determined in dealing with their environment. Therefore, self-efficacy is defined as the judgments of individuals with regards to their capabilities to organize and carry out courses of action required to achieving specific levels of performance (Bandura, 1986). Knowledge self-efficacy is typically the manifestation in people believing that their knowledge can help to solve job-related problems and improve work efficacy, Constant et al. (1996). In addition, several researchers have also found that employees with high self-efficacy in their ability to provide valuable knowledge in their areas of expertise are more likely to accomplish specific tasks than their counterparts, Constant et al. (1994) and Bock & Kim, (2002).. Intrinsic Motivation to Autonomy Eby et al. (1999) found that autonomy was positively related to organizational commitment. In this paper, though organisational commitment isn’t the researcher’s aim of measure instead organisational performance yet the piece could be vital in determining employee readiness and willingness to behaviour proactively in promoting and engaging activities that could enhance organisations performance. Autonomy may be critical and essential for employees of organisations especially (Gamtel/Gamcel) employees, why, because it provides employees the freedom to independently carry out their work, reduce their frustrations from seeking permission or approval from their managers on tasks they may perform exceptional good. As mentioned by (Hackman & Oldham, 1980), autonomy describes the degree to which the work employee do provides them with substantial freedom, independence and the ability to plan their work and determine how they will carry out their duties without control. Autonomy can be seen as a real structural feature of work, either in the form of strengthening a person or in the form of subjective feeling that reflects the desire of the employee to have less supervision and more control of each case he or she may be engaged as the domain specifics (Kiggundu, 1983). Autonomy is considered to encourage the agility and self-reliance of employees, allowing them to be creative and able to take risks by undertaken and initiating their own ideas or plans (Landfred, 2000). According to Chelladurai et al. (1999) for the employee to feel personally. 14.

(23) responsible to work, if considerable amount of freedom of decision on the execution of various tasks should be given. This way employee manipulation and sense of purpose to deliver proficient services would turn positive and thus improved employee-manager relationship for the overall organisational performance.. Intrinsic motivation of Competence As the name implies, competence could relate to employee’s knowledge, abilities and skills to carry out a specific task(s). The concept of competence especially employee competence at work is most frequently used in organisational setups. As frequent as it may be used there still exist no widely accepted definitions of the concept of “competence”. However, significant efforts have been made to help facilitate the understanding of this important concept. Table 2.1. illustrates few of the definitions of competence by (Stoof et al., 2002). Table 2.1. Definitions of Competence. Competency. is. Definition knowledge, skill,. ability,. or. Year 1997. Author Mirabile,. 1996. Parry. 1993. Spencer. characteristic associated with high performance on a job, that relates to problem solving, analytical thinking, or leadership. Other definitions of competency include motives, beliefs and values A competency is: a cluster of related knowledge, skills and attitudes that affects a major part of one’s job (a role or responsibility), that correlates with performance on the job, that can be measured against well-accepted standards, and that can be improved via training and development A competency is an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to criterion-referenced. & Spencer. effective and/or superior performance in a job or situation. Underlying characteristic means the competency is a fairly deep and enduring part of a person’s personality and can predict behaviour in a wide variety of situations and job tasks. Causally related means that a competency actually causes or predicts behaviour and performance. Criterion referenced means that the competency actually predicts who. 15. (continued).

(24) (continued). does something well or poorly, as measured on a specific criterion or standard Competence is the ability to handle a situation (even. 1992. Keen. 2000. Herling. unforeseen). Competence is a compound, made up of different parts just like the fingers of a hand [i.e., skills, knowledge, experience, contacts, values, and additionally coordination which is located in the palm, and supervision, symbolized by the nervous system] Human competence is displayed behaviour within a specialized domain in the form of consistently demonstrated actions of an individual that are both minimally efficient in their execution and effective in their results Note: Adapted from “The boundary approach of competence: A constructivist Aid for Understanding and Using the Concept of Competence,” by Stoof, A., Martens, R. L., Van Merrienboer, J. J., & Bastiaens, T. J. 2002, Human resource development review, 1(3), 345-365.. Intrinsic Motivation and Knowledge Sharing The imperative role of knowledge sharing in an organization is core. The practice is key in the generation of new ideas and exchange of expertise in an organization. It avails employees the opportunity to interact and discuss both the tacit and explicit knowledge each possess. This according to Lin (2007), knowledge sharing could be defined as a social interaction culture, involving the exchange of employee knowledge, experiences, and skills through the whole department or organization. Lin further commented that employee willingness to communicate actively with colleagues’ displays their desire to donate knowledge, and actively consulting with colleagues to learn from them demonstrates their love to receive or collect knowledge. Bartol and Srivastava (2002) define knowledge sharing as individuals sharing organizationally relevant information, ideas, suggestions, and expertise with one another. Intrinsically motivated employees affirming the values and benefits of knowledge sharing would not hesitate to engaging in the practice. Through knowledge sharing, employees can be satisfied by enhancing their knowledge self-efficacy or confidence in their ability to provide knowledge that is useful to the organization, (Lin, 2007). This would strengthen employee tacit knowledge capacity and increase their desire to participate more meaningfully towards personal growth but moreover to organizational growth. And it would also boost 16.

(25) employee morale to engage in the practice, because they would recognize the impact of their contributions on colleagues and the organization as a whole. Bock and Kim (2002) also indicate that making a significant contribution to organizational performance, regardless of the presence of tangible or intangible rewards, can contribute to the increased degree of competence of employees, and are thus positively related to the employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Moreover, employees who are able to obtain feedback on previous instances of knowledge sharing behaviours are more likely to understand how such behaviours may positively influence the works of others or the overall organizational performance, and they tend to develop a sense of self-worth (Bock et al., 2005; Kamhawi, 2010). This understanding may then encourage them to continue to share their knowledge with others in the future as they explained. According to Stenmark (2001), people are not likely to share knowledge without strong personal motivation H1: Intrinsic motivation has no effect on knowledge sharing. Extrinsic Motivation The role of extrinsic motivation on employee behavioural dispositions has ideal relationship and impact on employee expectations. While many employees in organisations are determinant in accomplishing tasks intrinsically yet many others yearn or expects for rewards or benefits in carrying out given tasks. This is because as we grow older and assume responsibilities our desire to work without external factor influence in the form of rewards either tangible or intangible demises our volitional behaviour to engage in that task. And even if we are engaged we may not find meaning and pleasure in the process, which of course has negative consequences on our individual performance and that of the organisation. Therefore, the game of motivating employees extrinsically should be purposive. Deci and Ryan (1985), discussed extrinsic motivation as the tendency to engage in tasks because of its unrelated factors such as promise of rewards and punishment, dictates from superiors, surveillances, and competition. Extrinsic motivation, therefore, focuses on the goaldriven outcomes, e.g. rewards or benefits earned when an individual performs an activity, the duo further explained. However, been insightful about extrinsic motivational schemes in perspective, human behaviour is driven by its perceived values and the benefits of the action. In this regard, the fundamental goals of extrinsically motivated behaviours are to receive organisational rewards and other incentives that may equivalent to task executed Vallerand (2000) and (Kowal & Fortier, 1999). According to Lawler and Porter (1967), extrinsic motivation could be referred. 17.

(26) to as the performance of an activity because it is perceived to be significant in achieving valued outcomes that are detached from the activity itself, such as improved job performance, pay or promotions. Undoubtedly, therefore, a profound system of employee extrinsic motivated behaviour for performing tasks must be carefully calculated if organisations intends to promote effectiveness and productivity. This is because counter productivity may result from poor placement of inappropriate extrinsic motiving factors which could create some deficient in employee output. And as a result, affect the ultimate goal for achieving high profit that could boost organisational performance.. Extrinsic Motivation in Relationship with Co-workers Extrinsic motivation with regards co-worker relationship is one external drive that could promote employee well-being and improve collaboration. The provision of amicable atmosphere where co-worker interpersonal relationship is encouraged could serve as a catalyst in the accomplishment of both individual goals and organisation’s goals as well. It is fundamental to note that for effective and efficient performance through the interplay of innovation, knowledge creation and sharing strong employee relationship cannot be underestimated. Therefore, any wise and sound CEO or manager would appreciate to see employees in the organisation have a cordial friendlier relationship. Based on this, (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008) described co-workers as employee colleagues who are at the same level of rank and interact with each other on work-related issues for better outcomes. However, if co-worker relationship is vibrant and nurtured in an organisation it would promote employee support and healthier work environment. Hence, coworker relationship could be of the degree of assistance provided by work colleagues in the spirit of boosting organisations’ competitiveness (Liao, Joshi, & Chuang, 2004) expressed. It is against this backdrop that, Vallerand et al. (1992) stated a significant description of relationships with co-workers as those relationships that are qualified to enriching, harmonious, satisfying and that inspires trust and tolerance. Thus, most importantly, relationship with coworkers inevitably enhances interaction and fruitful discussions that generates strong bonds between employees.. Extrinsic Motivation towards Expected Organisational Reward The human species is a kind of creature that without being motivated of doing an act may show undesirable behaviours or even cease doing the act. For any business, gaining profit is the concern all, therefore, managers would not appreciate the occurrence of such behaviours. 18.

(27) which may hinder organisations’ knowledge practices and innovation for ultimate poor performance. Therefore, expected organisational reward plays an important role in determining employee willingness and readiness to share their knowledge for overall company performance. Hence Lin (2007), affirmed that a person’s behaviour to act or participate in an event is driven by its perceived values and the benefits of the action. This vindicates that rewards are vibrant ingredients that lure employees to be consistent in their behaviours as they continue to engage in knowledge management practices, such as knowledge sharing. According to Davenport et al. (1998), acknowledged the significant role of organizations reward on employee behaviour of engaging in productive activities. They further pointed out that, rewards may come in different forms ranging from tangible stimuli such as salary increments, incentives or bonuses, and the intangible stimuli such as promotions, recognition and praises.. Extrinsic Motivation of Work Environment For effective and proper functioning of employees at work a conducive work environment is paramount. Research illustrates that employee affection, motivation, and behavioural responses influences a more positive and favourably directed engagement towards the organization when the work environment is characterized by low levels of structure and when there is a progressive opportunity to exercise personal control (Dwyer & Ganster, 1991; Pierce, Dunham & Blackburn, 1979). For the promotion and enhancement of employee engagement and creativity, the conditions that facilitate this, must be appealing. One of the most profound facilities an organisation could provide employees with is the enabling work environment, without which virtually nothing productivity and eye catching could affect. That is why (Hitt, 1975) stated that the re-requisite to a creative organisation are creative leaders and creative work environment.. Extrinsic Motivation for Job Security Extrinsic motivation for job security provides employees with psychological stability and improved well-being. Through interaction, recognition and management, positive reinforcement encourages employee achievement, assurance of job security could be promised and visible. For this reason, Dienhart and Gregoire, (1993), during their study in the work place setup came to realise that job security is an incredible intangible, powerful, and emotional factor that. 19.

(28) is typical of individual characters. Their study conducted at General Motors, reveals the combination of income (extrinsic rewards) and psychological benefits (intrinsic rewards) to be associated with the continuity of job security. Therefore, they conclude to define job security as a quality of an employee’s relationship to the knowledge and facilities attached to the job. Which by all indication reflects that, employees who have a sense of job security believe that they should be given the opportunity to utilize their knowledge, skills and abilities to the degree that their importance to the organization will guarantee acceptance and personal growth, then they feel safe and secured. Furthermore, Kuhnert et al. (1984) also uncovered that job security appears to be an individual attitude and that it is influenced by numerous, ingredients of factors to determine if the condition is of profound security. As a result, she identified honesty in communications with employees as the most important factor to their sense of security. She also mentioned in her study that two other prominent qualities that may enhance job security as supervisorsubordinate relationships and the financial stability of the organization. It is believed that, job security if given high assurance would have immense outcome on organisations’ economic performance, then the registration of the relationship between job security and leading economic indicators becomes increasingly important.. Extrinsic Motivation and Knowledge Sharing The relationship between these two variables is profoundly important for business organisations’ in their efforts to generate new ideas and practices in the ultimate attainment of organisational objectives. Therefore, the significant of the two in enhancing growth and competitive advantage cannot be underestimated. Thus, in this regard, (Lin, 2007) illustrated the instrumental role extrinsic motivation has on knowledge sharing. Lin continue to explain that extrinsic motivation is the expected organisational reward employees perceive to gain having performed a certain task. And knowledge sharing been one of the essential components of organisations’ process of generating ideas and innovation may not have happened without employees been motivated extrinsically. Once employees have hope and conviction that something rewarding will follow after engaging in a knowledge sharing process, the more volition they would take part in this crucial practice. Furthermore, as cited by (Lin, 2007), (Deci & Flaste, 1995; Bandura, 1978; Kankanhalli et al., 2005) explained that employee extrinsic motivation to share knowledge is as a result of the belief, that is, classically based on employee perceptions of the value of association with. 20.

(29) knowledge exchange. For example, employees engage in knowledge exchange based on a cost– benefit analysis, that is comparing the rewards (benefits) expected from an exchange with the effort (costs) involved in that exchange. Hence (Kelly & Thibaut, 1978) gave analytical explanation from a socio-economic perspective that if the perceived benefits equal or exceed the costs then the sharing process will gain momentum, otherwise the process will gain setbacks or may cease completely. H2: Extrinsic motivation has no effect on knowledge sharing. Knowledge Sharing The creation of knowledge does not only promote innovation for organisational performance and competitive advantage, unless knowledge sharing takes centre stage. The practice of knowledge sharing therefore, is an integral part of the research framework in a quest to explore its interaction with other variables for meaningful outcomes. Davenport and Prusak (1997), knowledge sharing was viewed as a transaction process of knowledge markets, where the knowledge buyers and sellers needed to have reciprocal benefits from the exchange knowledge shared. There has been growing increase and realisation that knowledge sharing is critical to knowledge creation, organizational learning, and performance achievement as explained by (Bartol & Srivastava, 2002). However, individuals in organizations have always been instrumental to create and share knowledge and therefore the idea of knowledge sharing was considered to be a natural function of workplaces, an activity that took place automatically (Chakravarthy & Zaheer, 1999). According to Reid (2003), knowledge sharing creates opportunities to maximize organization ability to meet those needs and generates solutions and efficiencies that provide business with a competitive advantage. In light of this, the organisations’ behaviour towards employee knowledge acquisition and ability to share this unique knowledge would be beneficially for both parties. During the past years a number of studies have illustrated knowledge sharing as an essential organisation feature, because it enables organizations to enhance innovation, performance and reduce redundant learning efforts (Scarbrough, 2003). However, it must be understood that knowledge sharing takes place at both employee and organisational level. At the employee level, knowledge sharing is done through talking to colleagues to help them get something done better, quickest form and more efficiently. For an organization, knowledge sharing is done in capturing, organizing, reusing, and transferring experience-based knowledge that resides within the organization and making that knowledge available to others in the business.. 21.

(30) Furthermore, a firm can successfully promote knowledge sharing culture not only by directly incorporating knowledge in its business strategy, but also by changing employee attitudes and behaviours to promote willingness and consistent in knowledge sharing (Connelly & Kelloway, 2003).. Leadership Leadership is an integral component in any organisation. It also plays critical and pivotal role in organisational knowledge sharing process. For efficient and effective knowledge sharing functions the role of leadership cannot be underestimated. (De Jong & Hartog, 2007), described leadership as a process of having an influential mind to helping towards to accomplish desired and set goals. In terms of leadership functions, (Leithwood et al., 1992), stressed for shift from instructional leadership which emphasise more on traditional norms of control (top-bottom) approach in dealing with employees to transformational leadership style which gives room for employees to interact and be part of decision-making process. An analogous between schools and organisation was made to see how this could help boost organisation competitiveness. Here (Ouchi, 1981) gave an explanation how significant and prudent it was to shift from a type A kind of organisation to type Z organisation. They further explained the characteristics of type A organisation as rigid and centralised form management where employees have limited say especially in decision making processes while in type Z organisations leaders engage employees and transparency is considered important. Moreover, employee perspective is respected and concerned if decisions are to be made.. Trust In our everyday life we encounter diverse people in an effort to fulfil our interpersonal relationship desires, create new memories and garner more experiences for meaningful life goal attainment. And one of the most fragile environment we found ourselves is the workplace, where intrapersonal relationship with others becomes inevitable. Therefore, building trust between co-workers and management would be of significant value in this discourse and also in the process of sharing knowledge. In his definition of trust Deutsch (1958), defined trust as the idea of motivational relevance as well as the idea of predictability. Trust is defined in (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995, p. 712) as “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party.”. 22.

(31) However, trust is also a critical factor and feature of sharing information and developing new relationships among individuals within and between organisations (Fukuyama, 1995; Lewis & Weigert, 1985).. Opportunity Employees or individuals in any organisation or company at all times look for lucrative opportunities that a company can provide. Most specifically, in the domains of training and development, interpersonal trainings and others which might assist employees beef their strength and capacities to function as expected. Therefore, it becomes mandatory upon CEOs and managers to provide vibrant opportunity schemes that could lure employees enhance their knowledge-based competency, at the same time create an atmosphere for the transfer or sharing of learned knowledge. In their definition as cited by Gaglio, (2004), Schumpeter, (1950) and Kirzner, (1979) defined opportunity as an individual’s ability to be creative or innovative rather than mimic in terms of service delivery or processes in an organisation setup. (Ardichvilia et al., 2003) described opportunity as a synthesis of ideas and are not found. Furthermore, they defined opportunity as strata or range of concepts which are unidentified and unseen at the beginning but became realised and developed over time.. Knowledge Creation Process By all indications organisational productivity and propensity for success cannot be attained or sustained in the absences of dynamic knowledge creation system or program. It is through such initiations that the organisation can tap into the fountain of knowledge possessed by individual employees to better benefit the organisation. As global competition for talents increases, knowledge is becoming an important strategic asset that provide profound competitive advantage. Therefore, the related role of knowledge creation process in organisations cannot be lenient. Previous studies have revealed the critical role of knowledge creation in the successful organizations (Gold et al., 2001). Organizations that better utilizes knowledge creation process can integrate knowledge in new and diverse ways, and design market offerings that could provide value to customers (Lee & Choi, 2003). Hence, knowledge creation is an ongoing process whereby individuals and groups within a firm and between firms share their tacit and explicit knowledge for improved productivity (Bloodgood & Salisbury, 2001). Hence organizations capability to creating knowledge is the most important foundation of firms’ survival and competitive advantage (Junnarkar, 1997; Nonaka et al., 2000). Knowledge creation processes such as socialization, externalization,. 23.

(32) combination, and internalization describe a spiral format of interactions between explicit and tacit knowledge as designed and developed by (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka & Konno, 1998). However, before dwelling on the SECI model, it is important to briefly look at the concepts on which it is built, that is, the tacit and explicit knowledge. In the previous literature, it has been indicated the meaningful role of knowledge types as lucrative in terms of organisational performance if properly handled and managed.. Definition of Tacit Knowledge According to Polanyi (1967), he described tacit knowledge as the knowledge that is nonspoken, intuitively possessed, and cannot be expressed because it is internalised in the unconscious mind of an individual. In another explanation, tacit knowledge has been discussed as an important arsenal for competitive organisations advantage this is evident from a resourcebased view of the firm (Barney, 1991). Tacit knowledge is not easily codified or articulated because it is hidden in an individual’s brain or experience, such as know-how or skill (Nonaka, 1994). Furthermore, it is obtained through the interaction of individuals during which processes like experience sharing, reflection, internalization or individual talents. It cannot be managed and taught in the same manner as explicit knowledge (Haldin-Herrgard, 2000) lamented.. Definition of Explicit Knowledge Unlike tacit, explicit knowledge can be codified, and it seems to be easily archived and more available in public settings (Hackley, 1999). As a result, explicit knowledge becomes easier to disseminate widely within and among employees and less peculiar to the knowledge holder in terms of creating competitive advantage because it could be a knowledge that already exist in the company or different employees may still acquire that knowledge. Simonin (1999) also described explicit knowledge as one that can be coded, articulated and that it can be transferred easier than tacit.. The Concept of SECI Model Now that the researcher has provided some insight background of what tacit and explicit knowledge means, it would be better and easily understood to discuss the SECI model and also define each component of the model. The SECI model of knowledge creation is a systematic interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge that generates essential ideas which allow firms to exchange and transform knowledge progressively and dynamically through a series of person centre processes (Nonaka & Konno, 1998; Nonaka et al., 2000). Nonaka and Takeuchi (1996), explained that this SECI 24.