Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of middle managers in the knowledge sharing process by presenting the results of a survey aiming to reveal the elements of middle managers knowledge sharing maturity and individual and organizational characteristics affecting them. The paper is based on quantitative research. The data were gathered through questionnaires. Based on 400 usable survey responses, the authors applied principal component analysis, decision tree, analysis of variance, and post-hoc test to reveal the elements of middle managers knowledge sharing maturity and the differences individual and organizational characteristics result in them. The study results indicate that middle managers knowledge sharing maturity is measured with four elements and based on individual and organizational characteristics there are differences in certain elements. The originality of the paper is that past research did not investigate middle managers or their knowledge sharing maturity, only focused on the organizational level of knowledge management maturity. The effect of individual and organizational characteristics on knowledge sharing maturity has not been investigated either. This paper focuses on these aspects. The results of the survey could help not only middle managers, but top managers and other employees as well in learning how to foster knowledge sharing.
Highlights
In the 1970s Chandler (1977) emphasised that middle managers‟ jobs cover exclusively the supervision of lower hierarchical levels, nowadays a large body of literature discusses their role from other aspects as well (Uyterhoeven, 1989; Sayles, 1993; Eaves, 2014)
Knowledge sharing often used as keyword in journals (Walter and Ribiere, 2013) and representing the key knowledge management process in organisations is fundamental for generating new ideas and developing new business opportunities (Lin, 2007a)
The purpose of our study was to reveal the elements describing middle managers‟ knowledge sharing maturity and the components of middle managers‟ individual and organizational characteristics resulting in differences in these elements
Summary
In the 1970s Chandler (1977) emphasised that middle managers‟ jobs cover exclusively the supervision of lower hierarchical levels, nowadays a large body of literature discusses their role from other aspects as well (Uyterhoeven, 1989; Sayles, 1993; Eaves, 2014). Balancing the demands and interests of these organisational members and short- and long-term business demands (Schlesinger and Oshry, 1984) are their tasks, besides becoming adept at the integration of “hard” technical skills and “soft” skills (Barnes et al, 2001). They need to possess inter-personal skills as well, since they have to work closely with others within and outside the organisation (Sayles, 1993). The significance of knowledge sharing is emphasised by Dunford (2000, p.296) as follows: “much of the key knowledge is held by individuals unless there is some structure to retain it within the organisational memory”
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