Investigating Knowledge Sharing Practices

By: Salahuddin

Knowledge is seen as a very important asset of any organisation, including schools. To winning global competition, schools should be able to effectively manage their knowledge by leveraging effective knowledge sharing practices within organisations. This study aims to investigating knowledge sharing practice in a single Indonesian school organisation. The study has a significant contribution to the understanding of knowledge sharing practice in school so that necessary strategies to improve knowledge sharing practices can be undertaken.

A case study was conducted in SMP N 2 WERA, an Indonesian junior secondary school. Several data collections such as document analysis, archival records and artefacts were used to analyse knowledge sharing practice in the school. Those data collections were combined with the researcher’s experiences and observation during he taught at the school since 1997 to current time.
The study found and concluded that knowledge sharing practices in SMP N 2 WERA has conformed to the literature to a certain degree. Knowledge sharing between individuals and between units and the SECI processes can be found at SMP 2 WERA. However, there is a certain obstacle which inhibits the types of knowledge sharing to occur; that is individual trust. The study also found that organisational and individual factors become major barriers in knowledge sharing practices. The organisational culture and ICT systems in SMP N 2 WERA do not support the knowledge sharing practices. Moreover, due to lack of understanding about knowledge sharing issues school leadership seems to have no intention to motivate individuals in the school by provision of incentives and forming and supporting communities of practice.