Managerial Prompting and Knowledge Sharing

In my previous post I noted that organizational culture influences knowledge sharing in knowledge management system (KMS) implementations. The right type of organizational culture will foster knowledge sharing while the wrong mix of cultural attributes will reduce knowledge sharing. One of the dimensions of the organizational culture that strongly influences employees' willingness to share knowledge is managerial prompting.

It has been previously argued that managerial prompting is related to the willingness of employees to share knowledge. Managerial prompting are the cues managers use to influence workers to work toward a particular goal by articulating expectations, refocusing the employees on the goal, and other methods to influence the workers' drive toward the common goal.

In the context of KMS implementations, managerial prompting is used to remind employees of the value of knowledge, articulate expectations that knowledge should be shared and re-used, and influence the workflows to better integrate knowledge sharing. Managerial prompting is needed to remind and refocus employees on the value of knowledge sharing but misapplied prompting can also reduce knowledge sharing.

It has been shown that managerial prompting that attempts to force employees to share knowledge results in decreased knowledge sharing. Rather than exerting force and control over the employees, managers must try to positively facilitate knowledge sharing and gently remind workers how the organization values knowledge sharing and how knowledge sharing makes their work more effective.

Managerial prompting is an important factor in establishing a successful KMS implementation by increasing knowledge sharing. However, the prompting must be done to increase trust and the employees' desire to share knowledge. Heavy-handed prompting will backfire and result in reduced knowledge sharing and ineffective KMS implementations.