A Knowledge Sharing Instrument Validation: A Broader Perspective for Global Organizations

Knowledge sharing research is growing in Latin America and New Zealand. Most instruments have been developed in the Anglo-American language (English). Currently there is not an instrument to measure the knowledge-sharing construct in Spanish. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the research process, consisting in the construction and validation of a knowledge sharing instrument in the Spanish language. At this Conference, advances of the adaptation and validation process of the instrument into English, with a sample of New Zealand participants will be included. The validation process in Spanish was conducted with 228 knowledge workers in Colombia. The instrument has two components. The first part (32 items) evaluates the different ways in which knowledge is shared in an organization. The second part (24 items) evaluates the different tools used in an organization to share knowledge. The validation process was structured in three steps: the construction of the items following a review of the literature; psychometric validation, and the statistical verification of the instrument's sub-scales. Four categories of types of knowledge and four categories of knowledge sharing techniques were identified. The results of this research contribute to the understanding of a broader perspective of the measurement of knowledge sharing. Many of the current instruments are very short and do not consider categories of knowledge sharing, neither tools people use to share knowledge. It is expected that the instrument will become a referent to the measurement of knowledge sharing in Spanish speaking countries, with global reach.