Culture is defined as a way of life. In organization, creating a knowledge management culture will mean that knowledge management has become the norm. This means that the environment is open for the flow of information; staffs are all working together to achieve common goals and top management legitimizes all efforts to make this work.
However, this scenario is far from reality. In real life, knowledge management is not so easy to create and sometimes the barriers come from different sources. Most of the barriers are people-based barriers. There is a natural inclination for individuals to keep information for themselves. Unless companies make efforts to create a right environment for staff to participate in information sharing, there is no way that information flow can be effectively shared from one staff to another.
Here are a few tips to create knowledge management culture:
Organizations should be aware of where poor communication networks come from. Sometimes making communication formal can also hinder good communication among employees. Maybe management can start creating avenues to make them informal. Making informal meetings and forums that are stress-free can make the employees feel relaxed and more open to communicate.
Management should legitimize knowledge management culture by making structural changes if necessary. If the present organizational structure hampers communication then change them. Management can also give incentive schemes to employees. Technological tools can facilitate knowledge sharing because it is more efficient and faster. However, companies should also be careful not to be too dependent on them. Creating knowledge management culture in organizations is not an easy feat but working on it can sure give companies many benefits.