Impact of Chinese Culture Values on Knowledge Sharing Through Online Communities of Practice

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how national (Chinese) cultural factors influence knowledge sharing behavior in virtual communities of practice at a large U.S.-based multinational organization. The data in this study come from interviews with the company’s employees in China, and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of knowledge management Vol. 3; no. 3; pp. 46 - 59
Main Authors Li, Wei, Ardichvili, Alexandre, Maurer, Martin, Wentling, Tim, Stuedemann, Reed
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hershey IGI Global 01.07.2007
Subjects
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

Loading…
More Information
Summary:The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how national (Chinese) cultural factors influence knowledge sharing behavior in virtual communities of practice at a large U.S.-based multinational organization. The data in this study come from interviews with the company’s employees in China, and managers who are involved in managing knowledge-sharing initiatives. The study results suggest that overall the influence of the national culture could be less pronounced in online knowledge sharing than what the literature has suggested. Although Chinese employees’ tendency to draw sharp distinctions between in-groups and out-groups, as well as the modesty requirements were barriers to knowledge sharing online, the issue of saving face was less important than expected, and attention paid to power and hierarchy seemed to be less critical than what the literature indicated. A surprising finding was that in the initially assumed collectivistic Chinese culture, the high degree of competitiveness among employees and job security concerns seem to override the collectivistic tendencies and are the main reasons for knowledge hoarding. The reasons for unexpected findings could be associated with differences between face-to-face and online knowledge sharing environments, the influence of the company’s organizational culture, and the recent rapid changes of the overall Chinese cultural patterns.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:1548-0666
1548-0658
DOI:10.4018/jkm.2007070103