Knowledge Sharing Initiatives in Chinese Professional Services Firms

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Knowledge Sharing Initiatives in Chinese
Professional Services Firms

• Robert Davison
• City University of Hong Kong
• isrobert_at_cityu.edu.hk

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Research Context
• Lit Review Key Issues
• Research Method
• Research Model Hypotheses
• Measures and Data Analysis
• Discussion
• Conclusions

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Introduction

• Knowledge-intensive organisations are becoming
  more commonplace
• Team based work is the norm
• Organisational agility is critical
• How can Knowledge Management Initiatives help?
• Not just creation, but dissemination and reuse
• Lots of expensive KMS failures!

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Introduction

• What are the factors that lead to
• Teamwork quality?
• Organisational agility?
• In terms of
• Leadership
• Knowledge sharing
• In the Chinese context?

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Research Context

• Eastwei www.eastwei.com
• A Beijing headquartered Public Relations firm
• Offices in SH, CD, GZ
• Mostly dealing with foreign clients (Sony, Saab,
  Porsche, Cathay Pacific, STB)
• Employees serve and create value for clients
• writing of stories covering client product and
  press releases
• follow-up on recent product and press releases
• update professional/product knowledge
• learn about market expectations
• build and maintain strong guanxi connections

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Literature Review 1

• Knowledge Management and Organisational Agility
• Knowledge reach and richness enhance
  organisational agility (Sambamurthy et al. 2003)
• KM increases competitive advantage, including
  innovativeness and agility (Awazu, 2004
  Halverson, 2004 Voelpel Davenport, 2004)
• Agility is related to a firms ability to
  generate the required information for management
  decision-making in a turbulent environment Zain
  et al. (2005)
• KS has a positive effect on team performance
  (Srivastava et al., 2006)

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Literature Review 2

• Leadership
• The new role of leadership in the information
  era the use of non-coercive influence to direct
  and coordinate the activities of group members
  toward goal attainment (McLean and Smits 2003)
• Transactional incentives instructions and
  expectations
• Transformational empowerment and facilitation,
  inspiration and participation
• The right leadership style is important for KM
  if employees really are going to share their
  knowledge
• Knowledge cannot be forcibly extracted from
  people they need to volunteer it.
• Not much Chinese research on leadership impacts
  in KM

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Literature Review 3

• Guanxi-Facilitated Knowledge Networks
• Guanxi the existence of direct particularistic
  ties between two or more individuals (Tsui and
  Farh, 1997)
• Comparable to Western concepts of relationships
  and connections
• Importance of guanxi is well recognised in the
  Chinese management literature (Xin and Pearce,
  1996 Fu et al., 2006 Tsui and Farh, 1997)
• Guanxi is closely associated with knowledge
  sharing (Lu et al., 2005 Peng and Heath, 1996)
• Strong guanxi ? Better knowledge? More reliable?

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Literature Review 4 Guanxi and In-groups

• Sharing knowledge within the in-group is
  psychologically easier (Triandis, 1989) because
  it both enhances ones face and personal
  reputation (Voelpel and Han, 2005) and embodies a
  preference for informal and implicit forms of
  communication (Martinsons and Westwood, 1997)
• Knowledge is communicated through the work
  process almost unconsciously. It is seldom
  communicated explicitly through documents or
  other formal channels
• IT applications may be used for informal
  communication
• In the digital era, there is still no perfect
  substitute for the motivational effects of human
  bonding and social connectedness (Lu et al.,
  2005)

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Literature Synthesis

• Notwithstanding the individual efficacy of each
  of the above research streams, together they may
  enable the achievement of a remarkable synergy as
  we investigate
• How leadership and guanxi pull and push teamwork
  and organisational agility in a
  knowledge-intensive context.

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Guanxi Eastwei

• Knowledge-driven communications
• Use guanxi to add value in the client-media
  relationship
• Actively exploit interests, needs and knowledge
  gaps in the mass media
• Provide clients with information, perspectives
  and analysis.
• Project success depends on Eastwei consultants
  creating, disseminating and reusing knowledge.
• Knowledge sharing culture is very strong at
  Eastwei.

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Research Design

• 1. Interviews with most employees (2 months)
• 2. Discuss interview findings with CEO
• 3. Survey all employees on attitudes towards
  knowledge sharing (2 months)
• 4. Ethnographic observation of employees at work
  what do they actually do? (1 month)
• 5. Some strategic planning for action, but
  financial crisis intervenes! Project on hold till
  mid 2009.

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Survey Model
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Hypotheses

• H1a Knowledge-focused transformational
  leadership is positively related to teamwork
  quality.
• H1b Knowledge-focused transformational
  leadership is positively related to
  organisational agility.
• H2a Knowledge-focused transactional leadership
  is positively related to teamwork quality.
• H2b Knowledge-focused transactional leadership
  is positively related to organisational agility.
• H3a In-group-based knowledge sharing behaviour
  is positively associated with teamwork quality.
• H3b In-group-based knowledge sharing behaviour
  is positively associated with organisational
  agility.

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Instrumentation

• Primarily previously-developed scales, but a new
  scale for in-group knowledge sharing behaviour
• Card sorting exercises to ensure the validity
• Total of 24 items included in final instrument
• Data collected online and offline
• Response bias no significant difference between
  early and late respondents

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Results of Structural Model
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Discussion

• The CEO and his senior colleagues deliberately
  use a mix of transactional and transformational
  leadership
• Both styles have an impact on teamwork quality
• Transformational leadership also influences
  agility, as does knowledge sharing
• It is a powerful mix intrinsic and extrinsic,
  empowerment and rewards

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Transformational Leadership at Eastwei

• Transparent organisational culture
• Open communications
• Open-plan office and no seat assignments
• You can sit where you like.
• No team spaces
• CEO sits in a different place each day
• Lots of discussion, coaching, facilitating,
  empowering

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ICT Tools at Eastwei

• IM (MSN, QQ) is used by most people
• Email and telephone used by a few old people
• Old means over 35
• There are media databases to store details about
  media event organisers and journalists
• Intranet to store reports, templates, cases

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Transactional Leadership

• Incentives and rewards, not punishments
• E.g. paid holiday for you and family
• Direct involvement with supervisors
• Hands on training, instruction
• Incentives at individual and team levels
• Public recognition of best practices
• Few punishments people who do not fit the
  Eastwei culture tend to leave quickly

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A Paradox

• We thought it strange that guanxi-lubricated
  knowledge sharing does NOT significantly
  influence team-work quality.
• Why wouldnt sharing knowledge with in-group
  members also help improve teamwork quality?
• When we talked with employees and watched them at
  work, it seemed that in-group knowledge sharing
  is critical to teamwork quality.

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Well

• Knowledge Sharing in-groups are not exclusively
  inside Eastwei they cross Eastweis boundary
• Many Eastwei employees have over 500 contacts in
  MSN but Eastwei has only 110 staff
• So, the knowledge network extends outside the
  company and knowledge sharing may be inside or
  outside Eastwei

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Also

• Knowledge sharing is mostly performed in dyads
  two-person groups.
• One-to-one, guanxi-based sharing
• But teamwork involves, 3-6 people, with each
  person mostly working alone yet contributing to a
  teams goals
• Knowledge sharing is more at the personal level
• Leadership appears more important than guanxi for
  team work (confirmed by post-hoc test)

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Post-hoc Test

• Although the in-group knowledge sharing was
  initially significant, the results showed that
  its direct effect on teamwork quality became
  insignificant when leadership were included in
  the model.
• This test suggests that leadership overwhelms
  in-group knowledge sharing in achieving quality
  teamwork.

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Agility

• Knowledge sharing does influence agility
• Actually, the knowledge may come from outside the
  firm, since employees leverage knowledge from
  many sources
• This may raise concerns of knowledge asset
  management
• Who actually owns the knowledge?
• Is it OK for employees to share knowledge with
  competitors?
• Nothing that can be stolen has any value (CEO)
• Guanxi itself cannot be stolen (CEO)

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Concluding Throughts

• The research literature tends to focus on Western
  contexts and large scale KMS
• Relatively little is known about KM KS in
  Chinese contexts
• And what is known is often limited to studies of
  MBA students or other captive populations
• There are few organisation level studies

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Limitations

• Small sample size
• One organisation
• Four locations
• One organisational culture
• Private SME

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Implications for Research

• Transactional and transformational leadership are
  clearly both significant in this context
• But traditionally Chinese managers have been more
  transactional, less transformational
• And employees themselves may not be comfortable
  with empowerment
• It is much easier to do what you are told to do

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Implications for Research

• Guanxi-lubricated, in-group based, informal
  knowledge sharing is widespread in China
• This requires further study
• Embed the informal practices into formal work
  processes?
• Case and ethnographic methods will be
  particularly valuable
• What do people actually do? What works?
• It is important to look at outcome variables
• Org agility in this case. Does KM make a
  difference to the bottom line? Productivity
  measures.

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Implications for Practice

• Informal knowledge sharing is natural and
  widespread
• It is a good practice that needs to be
  encouraged, not suppressed.
• A formal KMS would probably not work at Eastwei
• Tacit knowledge, especially in CN Informal
  tools
• Too much radical change creates resistance
• Empowerment can be a powerful motivator

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Last Thought

• Eastweis employees share knowledge not because
  they have to, not because they are forced to
• But because they want to, they enjoy it, it is
  natural and common sense.
• The next step is to retain the shared knowledge
  for future reuse.
• We are looking at wiki technology.

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References

• Awazu, Y. (2004) Informal network players,
  knowledge integration, and competitive advantage.
  Journal of Knowledge Management, 8(3), 62-70.
• Fu, P.P., Tsui, A.S. Dess, G.G. (2006) The
  dynamics of guanxi in Chinese high-tech firms
  implications for knowledge management and
  decision making. Management International Review,
  46(3), 277-305.
• Halverson, C.A. (2004) The value of persistence
  a study of the creation, ordering and use of
  conversation archives by a knowledge worker. In
  Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International
  Conference on System Sciences. Waikaloa, HI.
• Lu, L., Leung, K. Koch, P.T. (2005) Managerial
  knowledge sharing the role of individual,
  interpersonal and organizational factors.
  Management and Organization Review, 2, 15-41.
• Martinsons, M.G. Westwood, R.I. (1997)
  Management information systems in the Chinese
  business culture an explanatory theory.
  Information Management, 32, 215-228.
• McLean, E.R. Smits, S.J. (2003) A role model of
  IS leadership. In Proceedings of the Ninth Annual
  Americas Conference on Information Systems.
  August 4-6. Tampa, FL.
• Peng, M.W. Heath, P.S. (1996) The growth of the
  firm in planned economies in transition
  institutions, organizations, and strategic
  choice. Academy Management Review, 21(2), 492-528.

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References

• Sambamurthy, V., Bharadwaj, A. Grover, V.
  (2003) Shaping Agility through Digital Options
  Reconceptualizing the Role of Information
  Technology in Contemporary Firms, MIS Quarterly,
  27, 2, 237-263.
• Srivastava, A., Bartol, K.M. Locke, E.A. (2006)
  Empowering leadership in management teams
  effects on knowledge sharing, efficacy, and
  performance. Academy of Management Journal,
  49(6), 1239-1251.
• Triandis, H.C. (1989) The self and social
  behavior in differing cultural contexts.
  Psychological Review, 93, 506-520.
• Tsui, A.S. Farh, J.L. (1997) Where guanxi
  matters. Work and Occupations, 24, 56-79.
• Voelpel, S.C. Han, Z. (2005) Managing knowledge
  sharing in China the case of Siemens ShareNet.
  Journal of Knowledge Management, 9, 51-63.
• Xin, K.R. Pearce, J.L. (1996) Guanxi
  connections as substitutes for formal
  institutional support. Academy of Management
  Journal, 39(6), 1641-1658.
• Zain, M., Rose, R. C., Abdullah, I. Masrom, M
  (2005) The relationship between information
  technology acceptance and organizational agility
  in Malaysia. Information Management, 42,
  829-839.

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• 1. Transformational Leadership (Scale 17
  Strongly disagree Strongly agree)
• My supervisor sets a high standard for
  performance.
• My supervisor encourages work team members to
  express ideas/suggestions.
• My supervisor suggests ways to improve my teams
  performance.
• My supervisor explains company goals and
  decisions.
• My supervisor gives team members honest and fair
  answers to their questions.
• 2. Transactional Leadership (Scale 17 Strongly
  disagree Strongly agree)
• My supervisor provides incentives and re18wards
  for sharing knowledge appropriately.
• My supervisor monitors the way knowledge is
  shared and suggests improvements where necessary.
• My supervisor punishes people who deviate from
  established norms regarding knowledge sharing.
• 3. In-group Knowledge Sharing (Scale 17
  Strongly disagree Strongly agree)
• I need to build and maintain social relationships
  with others so as to ensure that they will share
  knowledge with me in the future.
• I prefer to share knowledge with members of my
  in-group.
• My membership of an in-group ensures that I can
  obtain preferential knowledge.

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• 4. Team Work Quality (Scale 17 Strongly
  disagree Strongly agree)
• I am satisfied with the quality of work produced
  by my team members. (GOP1)
• I am pleased with the quality of work in my team.
  (GOP2)
• I am satisfied with my team members. (GOP3)
• I am pleased with the way my team members and I
  work together. (GOP4)
• The work produced by my team is high quality.
  (GOP5)
• The quality of work produced by my team is
  excellent. (GOP6)
• 5. Organisational Agility
• Please indicate the speed or responsiveness of
  your business unit
• Service cycle time (Scale 17 Very long Very
  short)
• Service cycle time
• Report cycle time
• Whole project cycle time
• Problem solving cycle time
• Responsiveness (Scale 1 7 Very bad Very good)
• Level of customer service