Sharing knowledge one word

Disseminators

Disseminate verb: 3rd person present: disseminates; past tense: disseminated; past participle: disseminated; gerund or present participle: disseminating

spread or disperse (something, especially information) widely.
«health authorities should foster good practice by disseminating information»

synonyms: spread, circulate, distribute, disperse, promulgate, propagate, publicize, communicate, pass on, put about, make known. See, Google.com Link

Dissemination noun; plural noun: disseminations:

the act of spreading something, especially information, widely; circulation.
«dissemination of public information»

Promulgators

Promulgate verb (used with object), promulgated, promulgating.

1. to make known by open declaration; publish; proclaim formally or put into operation (a law, decree of a court, etc.).

2. to set forth or teach publicly (a creed, doctrine, etc.).

See, Google.com Link

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge (namely, information, skills, or expertise) is exchanged among people, friends, peers, families, communities (for example, Wikipedia), or within or between organizations.^[1][2] It bridges the individual and organizational knowledge, improving the absorptive and innovation capacity and thus leading to sustained competitive advantage of companies as well as individuals.^[3] Knowledge sharing is part of the Knowledge management process.^[4]

Apart from traditional face-to-face knowledge sharing, social media is a good tool because it is convenient, efficient, and widely used.^[5]
Organizations have recognized that knowledge constitutes a valuable intangible asset for creating and sustaining competitive advantages.^[6] However, technology constitutes only one of the many factors that affect the sharing of knowledge in organizations, such as organizational culture, trust, and incentives.^[7] The sharing of knowledge constitutes a major challenge in the field of knowledge management because some employees tend to resist sharing their knowledge with the rest of the organization.^[8]

In the digital world, websites and mobile applications enable knowledge or talent sharing between individuals and/or within teams. The individuals can easily reach the people who want to learn and share their talent to get rewarded.

Knowledge sharing as flow or transfer[edit]

Although knowledge is commonly treated as an object, Dave Snowden has argued it is more appropriate to teach it as both a flow and a thing.^[9] Knowledge as a flow can be related to the concept of tacit knowledge.^[10][11][12] While the difficulty of sharing knowledge is in transferring knowledge from one entity to another,^[13][14] it may prove profitable for organizations to acknowledge the difficulties of knowledge transfer and adopt new knowledge management strategies accordingly.^[9]

Knowledge sharing levels[edit]

Knowledge can be shared in different ways and levels. The following segmentation sheds light on the essence of sharing.

Explicit knowledge[edit]

Explicit knowledge sharing occurs when explicit knowledge is made available to be shared between entities. Explicit knowledge sharing can happen successfully when the following criteria are met:

• Articulation: the knowledge provider can describe the information.^[1]
• Awareness: the recipient must be aware that knowledge is available.^[1]
• Access: the knowledge recipient can access the knowledge provider.^[1]
• Guidance: the body of knowledge must be defined and differentiated into different topics or domains so as to avoid information overload, and to provide easy access to appropriate material. Knowledge managers are often considered key figures in the creation of an effective knowledge sharing system.^[1][15]
• Completeness: the holistic approach to knowledge sharing in the form of both centrally managed and self-published knowledge.^{[citation needed]}

Tacit knowledge[edit]

Tacit knowledge sharing occurs through different types of socialization. Although tacit knowledge is difficult to identify and codify, relevant factors that influence tacit knowledge sharing include:

• Informal networks such as daily interactions between people within a defined environment (work, school, home, etc.). These networks span hierarchies and functions.^[15]
• The provision of space where people can engage in unstructured or unmonitored discussions, thereby fostering informal networks.^[15]
• Unstructured, less-structured or experimental work practices that encourage creative problem solving, and the development of social networks.^[15]
• An organizational culture which is based on trust. This encourages employees to share their knowledge.^[16]
• Employees’ strong organizational commitment and loyalty to their employers supports tacit knowledge sharing.^[17]

Embedded knowledge[edit]

Embedded knowledge sharing occurs when knowledge is shared through clearly delineated products, processes, routines, etc. This knowledge can be shared in different ways, such as:

• Scenario planning and debriefing: providing a structured space to create possible scenarios, followed by a discussion of what happened, and how it could have been different.^[18]
• Management training.
• Knowledge transfer: deliberately integrating systems, processes, routines, etc., to combine and share relevant knowledge.

Methods[edit]

There are several methods both formal and informal that have claims to enable knowledge sharing in organisations. These include, but are not limited to:

• Communities of Practice: a group of people who share a craft or a profession; usually takes the form of cross organizational or inter-organizational workgroups, in physical, virtual or blended forms ^[19]
• Communities of Interest: Informal and voluntary gathering of individuals discussing on a regular basis, in many cases through defined digital channel^[20]
• Workgroups: Task-oriented groups that may include project teams or employees from various departments, working and sharing knowledge together towards a specific goal such as product development or production^[21]
• Knowledge cafe: a methodology to conduct knowledge sharing sessions using a combination of a large assembly and of small discussion groups of 3–5 persons, usually around small tables^[22]
• Lessons learned techniques: techniques to learn from what has happened before and what could be done better the next time.^[23]
• Mentoring: a way to share a wide range of knowledge from technical values to technical and operational skills. Via mentoring programs, it is possible to share tacit norms of behaviour and cultural values.^[23]
• Chats: Informal sharing, using instant messaging platforms. The knowledge is accessible mainly in the present or by search.^[24]
• Wikis: digital spaces to gather and share knowledge on specific topics. While discussion groups and chats are time-based. Wikis are topic-based. Wiki pages and topics link to form an intuitive network of accumulated knowledge. Categories are also used as a means to organize and present topics in wiki pages.^[25]
• Storytelling: an informal way to share knowledge, where knowledge owner shares real life stories to other.^[26]
• Shared Knowledge Bases: Shared organized content, containing information and knowledge. Can be formed as websites, intranets databases, file drives, comprehensive models based on probabilistic-causal relationships.^[27][28] or any other form that enables the access to content by the various individuals.^[29]
• Expert Maps: Organized lists or network of experts and corresponding expertise. Enables indirect access to the knowledge (via the expert).^[30]

Connection to adjacent disciplines[edit]

Information technology systems[edit]

Information technology (IT) systems are common tools that help facilitate knowledge sharing and knowledge management.^[31] The main role of IT systems is to help people share knowledge through common platforms and electronic storage to help make access simpler, encouraging economic reuse of knowledge. IT systems can provide codification, personalization, electronic repositories for information and can help people locate each other to communicate directly. With appropriate training and education, IT systems can make it easier for organizations to acquire, store or disseminate knowledge.^[31]

Economic theory[edit]

In economic theory, knowledge sharing has been studied in the field of industrial organization and in the field of contract theory. In industrial organization, Bhattacharya, Glazer, and Sappington (1992) have emphasized the importance of knowledge sharing in research joint ventures in a context of imperfect competition.^[32] In the theory of incomplete contracts, Rosenkranz and Schmitz (1999, 2003) have used the Grossman-Hart-Moore property rights approach to study how knowledge sharing is affected by the underlying ownership structure.^[33][34]

Importance to organizations[edit]

Knowledge is transferred in organizations whether it is a managed process or not since everyday knowledge transfer is a key part of organizational life. However, finding the best expert to share their knowledge in a specific matter could be hard, especially in larger organizations. Therefore, a structured strategy for knowledge transfer is required for the organization to thrive.^[15] Larger companies have a higher tendency to invest more on knowledge management processes, although competitive benefits are gained regardless of organization size.^[35]

In an organizational context, tacit knowledge refers to a kind of knowledge that human beings develop by the experience they gain over years.^[36] At present the employees’ experience and knowledge can be seen as the most important and most valuable source that organizations have to protect.^[37] Knowledge constitutes a valuable, intangible asset for creating and sustaining competitive advantages within organizations.^[6] Several factors affect knowledge sharing in organizations, such as organizational culture, trust, incentives, and technology.^[7] In an organization, five distinct conditions of the organizational culture have a positive effect on knowledge-sharing: communication and coordination between groups, trust, top management support, the reward system, and openness.^[4] Concerning the communication and coordination between groups condition, the organizations that are centralized with a bureaucratic management style can hinder the creation of new knowledge whereas a flexible decentralized organizational structure encourages knowledge-sharing.^[38] Also, internationalization is crucial for compliance or conformity. Dalkir (2005) says that internationalization is believing that the «behavior dictated by the norm truly the right and proper way to behave».^[4] If the norm is to communicate and collaborate between teams, it will be much easier for members of the group to internalize these values and act accordingly. Knowledge sharing activities are commonly supported by knowledge management systems, a form of information technology (IT) that facilitates and organizes information within a company or organization.^[31]

Challenges[edit]

Knowledge sharing can sometimes constitute a major challenge in the field of knowledge management.^[11]
The difficulty of knowledge sharing resides in the transference of knowledge from one entity to another.^[14][13] Some employees and team leaders tend to resist sharing their knowledge^[11][39][40] because of the notion that knowledge is property; ownership, therefore, becomes very important.^[41] Leaders and supervisors tend to hoard information in order to demonstrate power and supremacy over their employees.^[39]
In order to counteract this, individuals must be reassured that they will receive some type of incentive for what they create.^[41] Supervisors and managers have a key role in this – they need to create a work culture which encourages employees to share their knowledge.^[42] However, Dalkir (2005) demonstrated that individuals are most commonly rewarded for what they know, not what they share.^[41] Negative consequences, such as isolation and resistance to ideas, occur when knowledge sharing is impeded.^[31]
Sometimes the problem is that a part of an employee’s knowledge can be subconscious and therefore it may be difficult to share information.^[43] To promote knowledge sharing and remove knowledge sharing obstacles, the organizational culture of an entity should encourage discovery and innovation.^[41] Members who trust each other are willing to exchange knowledge and at the same time want to embrace knowledge from other members as well.^[44] National culture is also one of the common barriers of knowledge sharing because culture has a huge effect on how people tend to share knowledge between each other.^[39] In some cultures, people share everything, in other cultures people share when asked, and in some cultures, people don’t share even if it would help to achieve common goals.^[39]
The political scientist Hélène Hatzfeld has pointed out that people who have knowledge can be reluctant to share that knowledge when they are not confident in their own expertise, so to facilitate knowledge sharing, structures can be designed to elevate everyone to the status of a potential expert and make them more comfortable contributing; one example of such a system, to which Hatzfeld attributes mixed success in this regard, is Wikipedia.^[45]

Pinho et al. (2012) have made a comprehensive literature review of knowledge management barriers and facilitators.^[46] Barriers are considered to be obstacles that hinder knowledge acquisition, creation, sharing and transfer in and between organizations based on individual, socio-organizational or technological reasons. Respectively facilitators are seen as enabling factors that improve, stimulate or promote the flow of knowledge. According to Maier et al. (2002) understanding of the process supporting knowledge management enables further consideration of the obstacles and facilitating factors.^[47]

See also[edit]

• Collective intelligence
• Community of practice
• Transfer of learning
• Knowledge market
• Knowledge translation
• Knowledge management

References[edit]

Knowledge might be power, but it’s much more powerful when it’s shared! If only one person knows how to do something, that prevents others from developing and can hinder your organisation’s progress. Plus, what happens if they hoard knowledge and decide to leave!?

But that’s enough doom and gloom because when you manage knowledge properly and give people a platform to share and access it, you’re opening the door to a whole host of benefits!

Knowledge vs information

What’s the difference? It’s important to clarify this before we dive into the benefits of knowledge sharing. Information is really just the data or details of something, but knowledge taps into the experience and context of somebody who’s understood and used that data. 

Imagine you’re making a cocktail and you’ve got the ingredient list in front of you, you’d be able to attempt some shaking and pouring. But, without a recipe or guidance from somebody who’s trialled, errored and perfected, you wouldn’t know the order, the timings and the techniques needed. Knowledge sharing makes sure your employees are less shaken and more stirred.

If knowledge isn’t shared, people take it with them when they leave – and no company has time to relearn the things they once knew.

But if your experts are sharing knowledge with peers, they’re gaining relevant, company-specific information – which allows you to build collective intelligence.

The importance of knowledge sharing (in more detail)

Our benefits section will really dive into the details, but it’s important that we establish why knowledge sharing is so important before we get to all that! The act of sharing knowledge alone is great for building rapport and relationships, where people get that warm fuzzy feeling from either sharing their wisdom or picking up on the wisdom of others.

But it’s more than that, fostering a knowledge-sharing culture allows you to tap into subject matter experts! Across the business, people will have built skills and best practices that are specific to your product and customer – when they share those experiences, they allow others to skip the trial and error phase and get right to productivity.

And the more you encourage that behaviour, the more an organic learning culture builds throughout the team! This means all of this and the benefits we’ll dive into are happening day in and day out.

7 benefits of sharing knowledge at work

Jump to:

1. Collaborate and build collective knowledge
2. Find better ways of doing things
3. Build a community and learning culture
4. Create better customer experiences
5. Retain knowledge
6. Connect remote employees to knowledge
7. The feel-good factor

Collaborate and build collective knowledge

You should never underestimate the importance of collaboration, but if you’re having doubts Go Remotely compiled a fascinating list of statistics on this. They call out that 75% of employees think it’s important and that workers now spend around 50% of their time collaborating. 

But it’s more than just putting heads together, they need somewhere to save, share and search for their collective knowledge. That’s why learning platforms and knowledge bases are so popular. They bring shared knowledge into one place but also enable people to discuss and build on it. Think of it as your collective brain, which is always growing and learning new things.

70% of employees praised digital technology as improving their collaboration, while the numbers reveal that it can increase productivity by up to 30% and profitability by 21%. So if you’ve not considered technology in your knowledge management strategy, it might be time…

Find better ways of doing things

One of the best things about building that shared knowledge base is that you can learn from your mistakes and make sure you don’t repeat them. But you can also tap into your best experiences and make sure you do repeat them! It’s pretty much as simple as that. When people share what hasn’t worked and their teammates can find their insights, it prevents somebody else from making the same errors – that’s the importance of sharing information with colleagues.

But when you find something that works and has worked better than anything else before, you need to cherish that and hold it aloft for everyone to see! Or at least share that knowledge with them. There are countless benefits, but the clearest is that it makes you more effective and productive by streamlining the processes – say goodbye to needless trial and error. 

Build a community and learning culture

When people are learning from each other and have a platform to share their knowledge, that builds a sense of community. Especially when the takeaways from colleagues help people to do their job better! You could argue that this is the best way to create a learning culture because your people can see and feel the benefits of both sharing and tapping into shared knowledge. When the value and results come quickly, it gives you the momentum that you need.

Free Guide: 37 Lessons For A Winning L&D Strategy

Create better customer experiences

We touched on shared knowledge helping people do their jobs better, and the best example is probably for customer-facing employees. The knowledge base itself means that they can search for knowledge when they’re engaging with customers and that can cut down the time to respond. But, more importantly, they can learn what has and hasn’t worked from fellow customer-supporting staff, which ultimately means they solve issues more effectively.

Retain knowledge

No matter how much of a community and culture you build, the day will come when even your best and most-engaged employees fly the nest. But that doesn’t mean you have to lose all of their expertise and experience before they spread their wings. When people share knowledge and contribute to your collective brain, they’re helping people learn while they’re at the company but also leaving insights and instructions that can be tapped into once they’re gone. 

Connect remote employees to knowledge

Don’t forget about your remote workers! It’s often challenging for them to learn from their colleagues outside of the face-to-face environment, and perhaps more difficult to ask the right questions. When you’re remote, there’s the worry that you’re pestering people. Well, when people can search for shared knowledge, that really kills those two birds with one stone. 

Working remotely poses different challenges and creates different scenarios, so there’s a fair chance they’ll bring a fresh perspective to a product, interaction or hurdle you’re facing. So it’s equally important that those working away from the office have somewhere to share their expertise.

The feel-good factor 

Let’s end on the most positive note of all! Sometimes, sharing knowledge isn’t even about the knowledge, the biggest benefit can come from everybody feeling like their voice is being heard. That’s a real shot of motivation for most people because they feel like a valued part of the team, and their experience is genuinely helping others to grow. At the same time, they’re giving somebody else that same feeling and that can go a long way to helping your business progress.

Benefits of knowledge management

Knowledge management is really the difference between sharing great knowledge that people can find and finding that knowledge becoming a barrier to progress! How we organise and manage knowledge determines whether or not it’s easy to search for in the moments where people need it most.

At HowNow, this means using our platform as a central brain for all of our knowledge and resources! Typically knowledge ends up scattered across the company intranet, shared drives, people’s personal laptop storage, sticky notes in a draw and everywhere else you can imagine. We create one front door for all learning and give everyone a key that they’re welcome to use at all hours of the day!

We know you’re itching to go and reap the rewards of sharing that wisdom, so we’ll wrap it up with some of the key benefits of effective knowledge management.

• Put an end to scattered knowledge by bringing all resources into place.
• Allow people to easily search for and find the knowledge they need, when they need it.
• Which boosts productivity and cuts down on repeat mistakes.
• Update and enrich resources with additional updates and information.
• Empower people to make better decisions faster.
• Refine and improve business processes through shared input.
• Communicate important information quickly and ensure you reach everyone!
• Promote consistent and repeatable practices that employees can easily follow.

Could our integrated learning platform be the answer to your knowledge sharing management questions? Book a demo today and we’ll talk you through it.

Free Guide: 37 Lessons For A Winning L&D Strategy

Check out our other knowledge sharing resources

• 7 reasons why knowledge sharing is important
• How to improve your knowledge base? Make it collaborative
• How to identify knowledge gaps: Answered in 5 minutes
• How sharing best practices can supercharge your company culture
• Plugging your leaky bucket: Stop losing valuable knowledge today
• Knowledge Sharing In A Fast-Changing World: Tapping Into Your Untapped Wisdom
• 5 Steps To Becoming A Knowledge Sharing Organisation
• How To Get People Sharing Knowledge In The Workplace (Four Simple Ways)