Knowledge Sharing Through Social Exchange Theory Perspective

Abstract

In the article authors research a process of knowledge sharing in organizations. Organizations pay a lot of attention to the processes of knowledge management although not every single aspect of it runs smoothly. Literature reveals many impediments in the process of knowledge sharing. The present article focused on individual unwillingness to share knowledge. The process of knowledge sharing is analysed as social exchange proces. They distinguish between social and economic exchange.Social exchange could be subinstitutionalised where exchange processes emerge spontaneously among individuals without any rules governing their behavior. Or social exchange could be institutionalized and encouraged by organizations through rules, norms and values. The fundamental goal of the authors was to provide a conceptual framework for coherent relations between micro and macro levels of explanation of the process of knowledge sharing. The theory of social exchange offers a clarification of fundamental assumptions regarding individual action. These assumptions have not been researched in the literature of knowledge management up until now.