Knowledge Management Across Cultural Boundaries: Global Organizational Knowledge-Sharing

The practice of knowledge management is becoming pervasive in the modern business world. Yet, as the corporate world globalizes at an alarming rate, the process of how knowledge is captured and shared does not address the cultural nuances of those new participants spread across nearly every global region. Academically, knowledge management itself does rely on three primary pillars for success; those being process, technology, and culture. However, the culture aspect in the formal knowledge programs is more closely aligned with influencing users to share knowledge that they would otherwise hold close as an asset of their gained expertise. While this is also key to the success of this research, the manner in which knowledge capture is performed does not address those who are already willing to share, but are unable to understand the value that they can provide due to limitations of their culture and/or background. This study looks at three things: one, the global propensity of corporate knowledge management programs, two, how participants of knowledge management programs currently in existence knowledge share with their peers in other countries through the course of their daily work routine and three, through a brief survey and qualitative analysis, whether global knowledge management programs are addressing cultural concerns of their participants as part of their defined process. In addition, recommendations for further study on this topic are discussed