Group Identification and Knowledge Sharing

A few days ago I noted the three dimensions of organizational culture that influence knowledge sharing. These dimensions include managerial prompting, group identification, and social value orientation. In my previous post I further described the managerial prompting dimension so now in this post I will expand on my description of group identification.

Group identification is the degree to which people associate with a particular group. Individuals are a part of many groups such as religions, fans of a sports team, book clubs, college alumni, professional organizations, families or any other collection of people with a common interest or connection. A person belongs to many groups and the level of affinity for the group varies. This can be seen by the amount of time and energy people are willing to commit to any particular group. The higher affinity one has for a group the more likely they are to volunteer or spend time working toward the group's success. This affinity for a group is the driver of group identification.

Organizations or project teams that are able to develop cultures where employees have a strong affinity for the group are more likely to share knowledge with the group. The individuals value the success of the group and are more willing to contribute their own knowledge and expertise to help the group reach its goals. An organizational culture encouraging group identification will be more successful in knowledge sharing because its members are invested in the group's success and are willing to contribute knowledge to help the group succeed.