Knowledge sharing in Romanian companies

The cultural differences influence the activities, the processes, the relationships and the culture within an organization. Embodied knowledge is not easy to be seen and it is even more difficult to formalize and to share it. Research have shown that Western firms often set out to exchange explicit knowledge, whereas Eastern firms are often more interested in tacit knowledge. The more embodied the knowledge, the more difficult is to acquire them, but at the same time, the greater the extent that the knowledge is valuable. This paper analyses the perception of some Romanian managers over the knowledge sharing in the companies they run. Most of the Romanian companies are already involved in knowledge management, but often this is done informally or unconsciously. The goal of a formal knowledge management programme is to make knowledge marketplace operate more efficiently. In this way, organizations recognize that ownership of knowledge can bring competitive advantage and the lack of knowledge management means that they are losing money or opportunities either because they are unable to find the knowledge that they need by reinventing the wheel or because they are making decisions based on inadequate information. Quantifying these losses is difficult and this makes it hard to design and justify knowledge projects. Knowledge can be contextual, the person who holds the knowledge also knows what it means, what its limits are and how it can be used. The surrounding context of tacit knowledge sometimes lost when information is saved somewhere else. Even transmitting the information to someone else is not the same as knowledge transfer, because the receiver must understand the information and learn how to use it in appropriate ways. Knowledge is most effectively transferred through interaction, especially face-to-face interaction. This is one of the main reasons for which the management' perception and vision regarding the knowledge transfer is very important. A manager and the organizational culture of the run company can essentially influence the process of sharing knowledge, by encouraging or discouraging the interactions and the teamwork within the company. The vision and the attitude of the management with regard to this issue differ from one country to another, taking into account the cultural differences. This paper presents some research about the Romanian managerial perception concerning the knowledge transfer within Romanian companies.