Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice

• Published in: Journal of knowledge management Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 64 - 77
• Main Authors: Ardichvili, Alexander, Page, Vaughn, Wentling, Tim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kempston MCB UP Ltd 01.03.2003; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Case studies; Caterpillar Inc; Communities of practice; Community; Companies; Competitive advantage; Construction equipment industry; Employee attitude; Employees; Heavy construction; Information sharing; Knowledge management; Knowledge sharing; Motivation; Multinational corporations; Organizational learning; Participation; Product development; Qualitative research; Success; Tacit knowledge; Verbal communication; Virtual communities; United States > US; Trust; Knowledge management; Communities of practice
• ISSN: 1367-3270; 1758-7484
• DOI: 10.1108/13673270310463626

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study of motivation and barriers to employee participation in virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice at Caterpillar Inc., a Fortune 100, multinational corporation. The study indicates that, when employees view knowledge as a public good belonging to the whole organization, knowledge flows easily. However, even when individuals give the highest priority to the interests of the organization and of their community, they tend to shy away from contributing knowledge for a variety of reasons. Specifically, employees hesitate to contribute out of fear of criticism, or of misleading the community members (not being sure that their contributions are important, or completely accurate, or relevant to a specific discussion). To remove the identified barriers, there is a need for developing various types of trust, ranging from the knowledge-based to the institution-based trust. Future research directions and implications for KM practitioners are formulated.