Employees’ Perceptions on the use of Online Internal Communication for Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to assess employees’ perceptions on the use of online internal communication (OIC) for knowledge sharing from a personal/individual perspective. This is important because of the emphasis placed on the relevance of knowledge management (KM) in transforming ordinary organisations into learning ones, and to a greater degree through the use of new media technologies. One of the important dimensions of KM that is crucial for organisational learning is knowledge sharing (KS). However, the use of OIC to share knowledge among employees in deposit-taking savings and credit co-operative societies (SACCOs) in Kenya is still low. Therefore, it is necessary to explore employees’ perceptions and personal/individual factors influencing employees’ online KS using the available OIC tools. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Primary data were collected using an online structured questionnaire targeting the accessible population of 485 mid-level employees of deposit taking SACCOs in Kenya, and data were migrated to SPSS version 25.0 to generate descriptive statistics. Thematic coding of data obtained from eight focus group discussions involving 72 employees and in-depth interviews with eight senior managers were presented as narrative analysis. The findings of this study indicated that most employees lacked the requisite knowledge, skills and attitude for adopting OIC for knowledge sharing (KS), and emphasised the need for training prior to the implementation process and an organisational environment that is conducive for attutude modification in the use of existing OIC. This study is unique and adds to the existing body of knowledge in the proposed theoretical framework emphasing the need to enhance KS through OIC, specifically on a personal/individual level, considering the managerial/organisational and technical levels as well, to contribute to organisational learning and innovation to ensure sustainable competitive advantage.