Business today is faced with discontinuity and unpredictable change, which makes
many of the structured processes of yesteryear redundant or obsolete. Process-based
transactions are being replaced with technology and increasingly organisations are
recognising the importance of proactively managing their knowledge transactions, to
remain competitive. While research on knowledge sharing is gaining the attention of
researchers, almost invariably their focus has been on the factors influencing
knowledge transfer at the macro-level in large multi-national organisations. Few
have attempted to unravel the complexities of individual-to-individual micro-level
knowledge sharing and those that have, for the most part have directed their
investigations towards exploring factors that enhance or impede the source individual
sharing their knowledge, rather than the recipient's receiving of knowledge. While
questioning is implicit in knowledge sharing there are assumptions that underpin the
structure of a question and these assumptions affect both the source and the
recipient.
This study investigates how the structure of a question posed to a source individual
when eliciting knowledge, influences the attitude of a recipient individual towards the
knowledge they receive from the question response. Drawing upon theoretical
assumptions that underpin question structure, three hypotheses are posed to
compare binary, open-ended and directed question responses. To test the
hypotheses a progression of three independent studies were performed using
laboratory and field experiments. The first study conducted in a laboratory, used a
contrived scenario case as the knowledge context and the second study replicated
this experiment in the field. The last study conducted in a single organisation, used
real organisational knowledge as the knowledge context.
Recipients of shared knowledge were found to be more favourably disposed towards
question responses that were structured in a complex manner; open-ended and
directed question responses were more favoured than binary question responses.
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There was no difference in recipient attitude between open-ended and directed
question responses and recipient attitude towards the shared knowledge was found
to be positively related to their intention to use the knowledge in the future.
These findings are of significance as they illustrate the importance of structuring
questions in a manner that is consistent with recipients of the shared knowledge
being more favourably disposed towards the knowledge they have received. In an
environment of ambiguity, complexity and uncertainty where decisions are nonprogrammed,
strategic and imperative to the competitiveness of the organisation, no
longer is the binary 'Yes' or 'No' compliance or audit style question, with its implicit
assumptions, sufficient to elicit knowledge. It is important to recognise that often we
do not know what we need to know until it is shared by someone. Further, when
shared knowledge is cognitively processed with our current knowledge base, the new
knowledge is likely to facilitate more informed decision-making. The more
favourably disposed the recipient is towards the knowledge the more likely it is that
they will use it in the future; knowledge is transferred.
