University of Otago Research Project

Title of project:
Knowledge sharing in virtual environments: How knowledge is shared through virtual organisation of software developers participating in online communities

Brief description of the purpose of the project:
The environment in which organisations do business has dramatically changed in the last 20 years.  Pressures from technological innovations such as the internet and new collaborative technologies have meant that even the concept of organisation is being revised from a physical geographic-based to a more virtual context.  For many organisations, a major asset and basis for competitive advantage is held within a knowledge-generating workforce.  As such, knowledge management continues to play an important role strategically for organisations.

Virtual communities, such as blogs, provide an environment for knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing takes place when personal knowledge is validated, connected to and synthesized with others’ knowledge (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995).  The relationship between knowledge sharing within blogs and organisational knowledge management however has not been well studied.  Indeed, a literature review of both knowledge management and computer-mediated communication reveals a significant gap in how tacit knowledge is shared within virtual environments.  Tacit knowledge is an individual and personal knowledge which is difficult to articulate to others and is dependent on “action, commitment, and involvement in a specific context” (Nonaka, 1994, p. 16).  Even though knowledge management theory provides useful frameworks for knowledge sharing, it relies heavily on face-to-face interactions for tacit knowledge sharing models.  There are few studies on how tacit knowledge is shared in a virtual setting.  In part, this is due to the rapidly changing technologies behind the virtual environments.  Research conducted less than a decade ago uses models for technology that are outdated and it does not address innovations in current collaborative and networked environments. This research study builds on the knowledge creation framework (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka, Toyama, & Konno, 2000) and extends the tacit knowledge sharing models from material to virtual environments.

Associated with knowledge management in virtual environments is the issue of organisational structure in knowledge sharing.  Firms, now part of complex systems and networks, must reflect the influences of virtual organisation.  Since organisational structure functions as a system for organising people, new models must go beyond current conventions of organising people into different geographically located departments, functions, and layers.  In order to recognise how knowledge is shared within a virtual setting, therefore a new understanding of organisation for knowledge management must be established. This research study examines organisation from the perspective of social networks and virtual community.

The overall purpose of this research study therefore is to investigate the practice of knowledge sharing within virtual organisation.