Employee Knowledge Sharing Capabilities in Public & Private Organizations: Does Organizational Context Matter?

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Sharing knowledge and information is an important factor in discourses on e-governance, national security and human capital management in public administration. This article analyzes the influences of organizational culture, structure, and IT on employee knowledge sharing capabilities in five public and five private sector organizations in South Korea. According to the data, social networks, performance-based reward systems, and employee usage of IT applications are significant variables affecting employee knowledge sharing activities in the public and private organizations that were the focus of this study. Furthermore, the data show that while IT application usage is the most important factor determining employee knowledge sharing capabilities in the five government ministries, an end-user IT focus is the most important factor influencing knowledge sharing abilities in the five private-sector corporations. The results also indicate that the surveyed private sector employees have stronger perceptions of knowledge sharing abilities in their organizations compared to the surveyed public sector employees. Lessons and implications of this study for management leadership are presented.