Cultural enablers and inhibitors to knowledge sharing

Current knowledge management (KM) literature emphasizes the need to examine the elements of organisational culture that facilitate the development and maintenance of KM initiatives. Studies in the KM area discuss individual dimensions of culture and in some cases this leads to contradictory results. The literature indicates that the degree of influence of individual cultural dimensions vary according to the type of KM objectives - knowledge sharing, creation or adoption. This paper brings together theories on organisational culture in the literature on KM, change management and organisational learning, and develops a comprehensive model which identifies organisational culture factors that are likely to impact KM effectiveness. An analysis of case studies follows which aims to identify the cultural factors which influence knowledge sharing.