Uncovering the role of social media and cross-platform applications as tools for knowledge sharing
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-01-2019-0001 |
| Pages | 257-276 |
| Published date | 12 August 2019 |
| Date | 12 August 2019 |
| Author | Muhammad Naeem |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,Knowledge management systems |
Uncovering the role of social
media and cross-platform
applications as tools for
knowledge sharing
Muhammad Naeem
Worcester Business School, University of Worcester, Worcester, UK
Abstract
Purpose –Leaders, consultants and researchers are increasingly focused on enhancing the adoption of
social networking tools to increase knowledgesharing practices and the success rate of organizations. This
study was conducted to explore the adoption of socialnetworking applications in public and private sector
universities. This paper aimsto discover how social networking applications can foster knowledge sharing
practicesamong employees of universities.
Design/methodology/approach –The study is based on an interpretivist, qualitative research design
using grounded theory. Fifty-two semi-structured and non-directive interviews were undertaken with
employees ofpublic and private sector universities. Participantswere selected using purposive sampling,and
thematicanalysis was performed using the NVivo 11-Plus.
Findings –The study highlights how social media networking applications can be used effectively and
efficiently to foster knowledge sharing practices in the workplace. Five emerging themes are identified as
follows. Social media networking tools can enhance new knowledge, increase employee skills, promote a
knowledge sharing culture, foster effective communication and increase employee involvement in research
activities.
Research limitations/implications –Social networking applications have received attention because
executives and researchers are increasinglyfocused on finding new ways to use social networking tools in
business. The effective and efficient use of social networking tools helps organizations to foster knowledge
amongst employees, and can address various critical issues such as knowledge hoarding, lowers levels of
skills and knowledge,poor communication and employee involvement, the lack of desire to share knowledge,
and resistancetoward technology.
Originality/value –A brief systematic literature review on social media and knowledge sharing
highlights thatonly 11 per cent of studies found that examined thelink between social media and knowledge
sharing practicesacross the world. The study therefore represents an effort to shed new light on the adoption
of social networking tools in the contextof knowledge sharing among universities employees. Social media
applications have become popular across the world, and the speed of their uptake is evolving rapidly.
However,their contribution toward organizational changeis not yet known.
Keywords Knowledge sharing, Social media
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Social media applications have increasingly received academic attention due to their
popularity, and their social impact across the globe (Ahern et al., 2016;McLaughlin and
Sillence, 2018). Social media serves as a tool to foster effective communication and
knowledge sharing practicesat individual, group, community and organizationallevels. The
objectives of knowledge management and social media are consideredvery similar because
both bring about new knowledge and skills based on technologically supported information
Role of social
media
257
Received1 January 2019
Revised9 February 2019
Accepted9 March 2019
VINEJournal of Information and
KnowledgeManagement Systems
Vol.49 No. 3, 2019
pp. 257-276
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5891
DOI 10.1108/VJIKMS-01-2019-0001
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2059-5891.htm
sharing. Both enhance new ideas and support collaboration, and both are increasingly
adopted to manage change. They each increase levels of participation (Bradley and
McDonald, 2011). Recent social media tools have brought about changes in the way that
humans interact, communicate, collaborate and share content (Ahmed et al., 2018). Social
media tools include micro blogs such as twitter and personal blogs, social networking (like
Facebook and Myspace) and video- and picture-sharing applications such as YouTube and
Flicker (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010;Osatuyi, 2013;Yan et al., 2013). Moreover, cross-
platform mobile apps such as Skype, WhatsApp, Tango and Viber are also increasingly
used as a tool for knowledge sharing among groups(Al-Aufiand Fulton, 2014). At present,
executives, researchers, consultants and decision makers are increasingly focusing on
finding new ways to use social media tools such as Second life, Wikipedia, Twitter,
YouTube and Facebook (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). However, there is limited literature
available which has explored the role of social media and cross-platform applications in
enhancing knowledge sharing practices in the workplace. Therefore, this study aims to
address this knowledge gap by examiningnetworking tools and their usage to establish the
role of such social networkingtechnologies in knowledge sharing in the workplace.
Bughin and Chui (2010) highlighted that social networking tools increased the
productivity of McKinsey and Company employees from 20 to 25 per cent. Furthermore,
they indicated that when their employees switched from traditional tools to social
networking tools, they saved 35 per cent of their work time and maintained a searchable
knowledge record. According to Bradley and McDonald (2011), top business leaders have
recognized that engagement is an excellent method to gather productive ideas through
knowledge exchange and by using social media applications. However, social media as a
means to enhance knowledgesharing has limitations such as a perceived lack of managerial
and leadership direction, the unsupportive nature of knowledge culture and organizational
climate, lack of willingness to use again codifiedknowledge (Chen and Hung, 2010;Stewart
and Osei-Bryson, 2013), costs of codifying knowledge, fear of losing knowledge power,
perceived lack of personal benefits (Nezakatiet al.,2015;Muqadas et al., 2017;Pee and Lee,
2015), lack of intention to share knowledge, lack of appropriate knowledge, lower level of
user adoption and participation, lower level of employee motivation and inappropriate
reward system, lack of intention to use new social networking tools for knowledge sharing
(Alajmi, 2012), lower level of interpersonal trust, low priority perception to use social
networking applications for knowledge sharing, knowledge hoarding and low level of
supportive social environment for knowledge sharing (Chang and Chuang, 2011;Muqadas
et al.,2017).Therefore, it is important to establish how organizations can address the above
stated issues to make efficientand effective use of social networking tools in the workplace.
Al-Aufiand Fulton (2014) found that one-third of participants never used social
networking tools, and they called for future qualitative research. To date, researchers have
made very few attempts to link various social networking applications to the context of
knowledge sharing (Ahmed et al., 2018).Furthermore, researchers have argued that only 11
per cent of qualitativestudies across the world have examined the link betweensocial media
and knowledge sharing (Ahmed et al.,2018).Furthermore, researchers have indicated thatit
is rare to finder search that explores the roleof social networking applications in the context
of academia (Ghazali et al., 2016). An exploration of different aspects of social media is
ultimately beneficial to increase knowledge sharing in university research cultures. Such
research would also be beneficial for other organizations outside academia to raise
knowledge sharing practices. This research is limited in scope to the UK. It is anticipated
that the results will facilitate knowledge sharing in other universities by illuminating
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