To share or not to share, that is the question. Conditions for the willingness to share knowledge

Sharing knowledge is an important aspect of most modern organisation. Ideas about how to stimulate knowledge sharing abound, but without much theorising. The objective of this article is to link basic motivation theories to empirical studies of knowledge sharing and its conditions. The paper starts with an orientation on company strategies to stimulate knowledge sharing, and the role of various types of incentives. It appears that these incentive schemes are based on various assumptions concerning human motivation. We turn then to work motivation theory to search for underlying processes that may explain why people would or would not share their knowledge. Understanding these processes and conditions can promote organisational strategies that support knowledge sharing. The findings are combined in an overview and motivational model that identifies the interaction of several psychological and organisational processes. From this overview a checklist is derived to assess the motivation for knowledge sharing and the conditions that may influence this motivation. Organizations that want to improve knowledge sharing may use this instrument to identify the issues they have to give attention toResearch Programme Innovation SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen