Organizational Culture, Knowledge Sharing, and Intellectual Capital: Directions for Future Research

Abstract

Organizational culture and knowledge sharing are two significant factors for the long-term success of an organization. As the sum of all knowledge used to develop a business and gain competitive advantage, intellectual capital is a mechanism for organizational performance. Despite that, existing evidence recounts the individual role of knowledge sharing on the organization’s intellectual capital; there is a lack of exploration and explanation of the role of organizational culture, knowledge sharing environment, and intellectual capital. This paper presents a conceptual model on the relationship between organizational culture, knowledge sharing practices (i.e. knowledge types, knowledge sharing approaches and knowledge sharing processes), and organization performance. The model proposes the potential measures of an organisation’s knowledge sharing environment and the role of organisational culture in shaping knowledge sharing practices and intellectual capital development and utilisation. Hypothetically, we argue that organisation culture is positively related to the organisation’s knowledge sharing environment, which in turn is positively related to its intellectual capital. On the other hand, we propose that organisational culture is positively related to intellectual capital. This paper indicates directions for further research and discusses the potential implications for theory and practice on knowledge management.