Literature Review
Exchange of Knowledge is a significant practice in the organisation, which provides the employees an opportunity to develop their Skills And Knowledge. The act of exchanging knowledge is beneficial for developing a strong workforce within the organisation, which also increases the overall productivity rate as well as quality performance of the company (Sprinkle and Urick 2018). One of the main benefits that can be achieved through exchanging important collective knowledge with others is that it develops a strong relationship among the employees. Exchange of knowledge also enhances the chances for the employees to get better career opportunities. The engagement within the employees increases due to easy flow of knowledge in the organisation, which also helps in retaining the knowledge for a long term. For example, the senior employees share their experience to the new employees, and this procedure goes on, which helps in retaining the collective knowledge in the organisation. The chances of repeating mistakes also reduces if the organisation manages to exchange the knowledge among the employees properly. Exchange of knowledge also helps in creating the workplace as an integrated learning platform. The employees can develop their skills and knowledge together, by sharing their perspectives, experiences an opinion about certain factors, which are beneficial for the company environment. The knowledge exchange within the company has a strong impact on the organisation, in terms of empowering the internal associates of the company in order to improve the decision-making procedure, within a short period. In addition, apart from the beneficial factors exchange of knowledge can also have a negative impact on the employees as well as the overall workplace. However, it can be observed that, there are several literatures available regarding the importance of exchanging knowledge in an organisation, which will be reviewed in further in this study, with a critical analysis of the literatures.
Figure 1: Process of Knowledge Exchange
(Source: Archer-Brown and Kietzmann 2018)
According to Vasin et al. (2020), the exchange of knowledge increases the interpersonal trusts within an organization, or in a social context. In addition, it has also been argued in the literature that the knowledge sharing also depends on the corporate behavior that are built on the employee relations. The companies with stable and strong workforce are more likely to gain a competitive advantage from the market. Exchange of knowledge helps in developing connectivity among the employees, which also increase creativity flow in the organization. As a result, it helps the company to bring innovation within the company.
On the other hand, Bond-Barnard, Fletcher and Steyn (2018) contradicted that knowledge sharing practices among the employees within the workplace helps in developing integrated teams, which in result increases the unified productivity level of the company. The author has applied the organizational knowledge creation theory in order to evaluate the importance of knowledge exchange among the employees in the organization, for developing trust among the employees. This theory states that the employees are accountable for amplifying the available knowledge within the organization, which will be beneficial for bringing innovative measures in the company. Bond-Barnard, Fletcher and Steyn (2018) also mentioned that, the organizations that do not focus on developing trust among the employees, faces conflict issues. Due to lack of interpersonal or cognitive based trust, the employees also feel reluctant in terms of sharing eventful knowledge to others. Therefore, it increases misbalance within the company operations, because the performance qualities of the individuals remain unequal. Henceforth, it can be considered that in order to create an integrated learning platform in the organization, the company can focus on programs that encourages the employees to exchange their knowledge, which will collectively increase the productivity of the organization. In this type of situation, the dynamic theory of organizational knowledge can also be implemented. This theory states that the organizational knowledge can be developed through several tactics such as continuous interactions, socialization, internalization, externalization as well as combination among the employees (Zhao et al. 2019). By increasing the dynamics of knowledge exchange, which develops the overall organization knowledge that provides the company a competitive advantage. Vasin et al. (2020) also argued that the knowledge sharing helps in development of the behaviours of the employees, because it encourages the individuals to become more open about sharing their opinion in the company. It enhances the knowledge seeking behaviour of the individuals, because the exchange of knowledge increases the urge of the individuals to learn more from the others present in the organization.
Reasons to Incorporate Knowledge Exchange in an Organisation
According to Sa’adah and Rijanti (2022), the knowledge exchange or transfer procedures has a huge impact on the organizational performance. The author argued that the company determines its overall performance by analysing the quality of the individual employees in the workplace. Therefore, it can be considered that the company needs to develop a skilled workforce that increases the productivity and improves the overall organizational performance. There are several factors that usually reduces the quality of the individual performances, such as the limited knowledge of the employees about the company operations. Several employees also struggle regarding the limited opportunities in the organization, in terms of developing their skills and knowledge. Therefore, the organization are held as accountable in terms of providing appropriate facilities and opportunities to the employees, in terms of increasing the flow of knowledge sharing in the organization.
Saffar and Obeidat (2020), contradicted that the knowledge sharing is a crucial part in the organization, which needs to be analysed in a frequent basis. It is one of the major responsibilities of the organization is to enhance the employee performance by ensuring that all employees are getting equal opportunities to grow in the organization.
It has been found that 60% of the companies follow the standards of knowledge sharing, which helps them to provide the employees an opportunity to develop their skills. On the other hand, the rest of the company are unaware of the knowledge sharing practice, which can hamper the overall performance of the company (Sa’adah and Rijanti 2022). The author also argued with evidence that only 67% of the employees indulges themselves in the knowledge sharing practices, which prevents them from developing their soft skills (Sa’adah and Rijanti 2022). Therefore, the risk of low-quality production performance becomes high in the organization. The author also argued one of the major examples of the positive workplace environment is the free flow of knowledge from the senior employees to the newly recruited employees, in order to increase their skills.
It has been identified that exchanging knowledge is a reciprocal procedure, in which everyone shares their knowledge with each other through frequent interactions. It has been argued that, it is important to notice whether the individuals are willing to share truthful knowledges with each other or not. It is possible for an individual to share false information with others, in order to degrade someone’s position in the company. The chances of these types of risks increases when the individuals are forced to share their knowledge with other without their willingness in the organization.
Apart from influencing positive performance growth, it has been identified by the researchers that the exchange of knowledge also creates opportunities for higher organizational learnings, innovation and in some cases increased sustainability of the company. According to the argument of the Saffar and Obeidat (2020), every employee within the organization has different types of techniques that they use in order to complete any task or to overcome any difficult situation. The various types of tactics can be extracted from the employees, which collectively helps the overall employees in order to use those tactics in difficult situation. In order to organize the flow of knowledge exchange, many companies have implemented knowledge management programs. The interesting characteristics of the organization can be enhanced with implementing appropriate knowledge management within the companies.
Impact of Exchanging Knowledge on the Organisational Performance
Figure 2: Knowledge Creation
(Source: Graham, Kothari and McCutcheon 2018)
According to Singh et al. (2021), it has been mentioned that the exchange of knowledge helps in increasing the opportunities for digitalisation, also there are several challenges that a company has to face because of knowledge exchange. One of the major challenges that a company face is the inadequacies of appropriate facilities regarding the implementation of the knowledge programs. The suggestions of technological benefits and knowledge regarding advanced technologies can be gathered from the employees. However, if the company does not acquire appropriate resources to provide the employees opportunities to share their knowledge, or usage their tactics in the organisation, then the company will not be able to bring technological advancements in the company (Durst and Zieba 2019). The scholars have also argued that the large-scale companies possess more assets than the small-medium scale companies, which is appropriate in terms providing opportunities to the employees to explore their knowledge without many obstacles, Therefore, it can be considered that the financial instability is also a major issue in terms of developing appropriate facilities that encourages exchange of knowledge.
In addition, technologies also help in knowledge exchange, for example, the digital platform increases the communication among the employees, which as a result enhance the opportunity to exchange knowledge with each other. Therefore, the financially backward companies, are unable to implement high quality technologies which limits interaction among the employees, as well as limits the amount of knowledge exchange. In this type of situations, the System management theory can be applied. This theory suggests that it is responsibility of an organisation to understand the interdependences, relations of the employees and most importantly the organisational demands (Ali, Musawir and Ali 2018). Therefore, it can be said that the company needs to understand their basic capabilities, and the needs within the organisation, which will help them to invest appropriate amounts in the right facilities. As a result, it will be beneficial for mitigating the limited resources issues in terms of initiating the knowledge exchange facilities of the organisation.
According to the Martins et al. (2019), the organisations that includes sustainable practices within the business operations are more likely to achieve the desired objectives from the market, within a short time span. The scholars also argued that appropriate exchange of knowledge is beneficial in terms of developing the sustainability within the organisation. United Nations published an Agenda 2030, which states 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which the companies can implement in order to contribute to the environment and society. Nowadays, the customers on a wide basis appreciates the companies that are socially and environmentally sustainable (Munoz-Pascual, Galende and Curado 2019). However, it has been identified that a very few numbers of people are knowledge about the benefits of corporate sustainability. Therefore, it is important to increase the awareness of the employees and the other important company associates regarding the implementation of the sustainability factors.
As per the argument of Nisar, Prabhakar and Strakova (2019), it has been observed that in order to implement such measures, the companies in often cases restructure their policies, and some of the last-minute changes. It increases the chaos among the employees, and the employees also become reluctant to the new policies. Therefore, the organisation is hold accountable in terms of increasing knowledge among the employees, regarding the new sustainable measures or the changed policies .
It can be observed that, the companies implement training and development programs, through which the company authorities transfer their knowledge to employees, and in exchange gain knowledge or various perspectives of the employees regarding the improvement of the sustainable approaches within the organisation. In this type of situations, the organisations often use the change management framework, which guides the company in terms of managing their employees during this type of situations. The scholars have strongly argued that the knowledge exchange helps in more cleaner productions of the sustainability in the organisation (Nisar, Prabhakar and Strakova 2019). As a result, in order to gain a competitive advantage from the market for both high productivity as well as benefitting sustainable practices, the company should consider appropriate knowledge management within the organisation (North and Kumta 2018).
Figure 3: Activities of Knowledge exchange
(Source: Maravilhas and Martins 2019)
Since the sudden outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic scenario, the overall dynamics of the organisation has changed rapidly. Nowadays, the organisations are more prone towards implementing technology in every aspect of the business, that are especially helpful in the pandemic conditions. Uncertainty of the future as well as the global market risks have increased. The global economy also witnessed a decline of 3.4% after the global pandemic scenario, for which the temporary closures of the global businesses are responsible. Therefore, the urgent need for implementing advanced technologies, in order to improve the condition of the overall production increased. However, implementation of technologies without appropriate knowledge of the employees also became impossible for the companies.
According to Montani and Staglianò (2022), appropriate knowledge exchange within the organisations, improves the quality of technological implementation. The authors identified that the global pandemic shock has the capacity to increase the global unemployment by 5.3 million, which is again harmful for the economic conditions. One of the main reasons that the employee turnover rate in creased in the organisation, is that the lack of technological knowledge among several employees, besides the declining financial conditions of the countries. Apart from the young professionals, it has been identified that the employees from older generations, are not aware of the technological benefits. Therefore, the young professionals exchange their technological abilities and knowledge with the senior employees, and return earn knowledge about the tactics that has defended the senior employees in difficult situations like this (Bacon, Williams and Davies 2020). It clearly indicates that the knowledge exchange is beneficial in terms of developing skills and abilities of both the parties, which are important in order to survive in a company for a long time. Therefore, it can also be considered that the knowledge exchange has helped the companies to survive through the difficult COVID 19 pandemic situation, and it can be said that it will be beneficial for mitigating any future crisis in the organisation.
As per the suggestions of Gagné et al. (2019), knowledge exchange helps in simplifying the operational procedures, as well as improves the employee behaviour. The frequency of knowledge exchange within an organisation heavily depends on the employee behaviour. It has been identified by the scholars that, in some cases few of the employees remains demotivated in the company, which decreases the cumulative productivity rate of the overall company. Therefore, it is important to share important knowledge to the individuals, in order to motivate them to willingly increase their productivity and quality of the performance. It has also been identified in the article that, several employees intentionally hide their knowledge, or conceal the knowledge from a person who have requested to gain some views regarding a certain matter in the organisation (Saffar and Obeidat 2020). It can be considered as a bad employee behaviour problem, because the individuals do not understand the need for knowledge exchange within the organisation. In this way, the employees are more likely to limit their perspectives because if the do not share or transfer their knowledge to other, they will also not be able to gain helpful insights from others in exchange.
The self-determination theory has been applied in this aspect, which suggests that, various sorts of motivation have the capacity to influence the employees in terms of sharing their knowledge with others. Therefore, the organisations are held as responsible for providing incentives to the employees that increases employee motivation as well as knowledge exchange within the workplace (Ahmad and Karim 2019). It is obvious from the literature, that different types of employees have different productivity level. Some dominates the productivity chart, whereas some of the employees have low production. Appropriate knowledge exchange from the high performing employees to the low performing employees, can develop an urge among the low productive employees to work more in terms of achieving individual success from the company (Nguyen et al. 2019).
Sung and Choi (2018) argued that, the HR practices can be blamed for the bad employee behaviour. It is important to develop a motivating work design, that influences the growth of knowledge exchange flow within the organisation. Negative working conditions, or inappropriate facilities can also be blamed for limiting the knowledge exchange facilities among the employees in the organisation. The HR are responsible for aligning the company objectives with the knowledge management, which will help the employees to understand about the need for knowledge exchange among each other for the overall organisational development.
The contradictory argument is that, an employee happily shares knowledge with others, if in return the employee is getting reward or helpful from others. Therefore, another major responsibility of the HR is to prevent the one-way flow of knowledge sharing or exchange, and mainly should focus on the exchange of knowledge (Sung and Choi 2018).
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the overall discussion that appropriate implementation of knowledge exchange practices among the employees, can provide several opportunities to the company to grow in the market. More or less every, it every literature that has been analysed in the study, has mentioned that, the knowledge exchange is beneficial for increasing the employee productivity as well as improve the performance qualities. Free flow of knowledge exchange among the employees, reduces the chances of repeating same mistakes in the business operations. In addition, it also enhances the skills and abilities of the employees, that are beneficial for obtaining better career opportunities in the future. One of the important and positive factors that has been identified through the literature discussion is that, exchange of knowledge increases the quality of the individual performances in the company as well as enhances the sustainable practices within the organisations. However, there are several obstacles that limits the knowledge exchange among the employees. Declining financial conditions and lack of company resources in terms of implementing appropriate knowledge management facilities prevents the exchange of knowledge. Another thing that mainly prevents the knowledge exchange is the unwillingness of the employees in terms of sharing their valuable knowledge. In addition, several employees hide their knowledge from others, which also restricts the opportunities for others, creating a misbalance in the overall company operations. Therefore, it can be said that, the company or the HR are mainly responsible for influencing the employees to participate in knowledge exchange practices, that also cumulatively increases the overall employee experience. In addition, another important factor that can be enhanced using exchange of knowledge is the sustainability practices among the organisations, which is ongoing marker trend.
References
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