Int. J. Knowledge Management Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2010 233
Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Paved with good intentions: discrepancies
in knowledge sharing among high-tech workers
Iris Reychav*
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management,
Ariel University Center,
P.O. Box 40700, Ariel, Israel
E-mail: irisre@ariel.ac.il
*Corresponding author
Jacob Weisberg
Graduate School of Business Administration,
Bar-Ilan University,
Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
E-mail: weisberg@mail.biu.ac.il
Abstract: Academics and practitioners alike have stressed the significance of
managing knowledge in today’s competitive environment. Numerous efforts
have been made to foster attitudes towards knowledge sharing given the gap
between individuals’ intentions and actual sharing. This study examines the
discrepancy between intention and behaviour to donate and collect explicit and
tacit knowledge. The data were collected from 278 Hi-Tech workers in two
telecommunications companies. The findings reveal a significant gap in the
knowledge-sharing process between intention and behaviour to give and
receive both explicit and tacit knowledge. This study suggests a more delicate
look from the theoretical perspective into the discretion between an intention to
share knowledge and the actual behaviour of doing so, and it contributes
to management practice by exploring the issues involved in turning intention
to share knowledge into actual behaviour.
Keywords: intention; behaviour; knowledge sharing; explicit knowledge; tacit
knowledge; donate knowledge; collect knowledge.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Reychav, I. and
Weisberg, J. (2010) ‘Paved with good intentions: discrepancies in knowledge
sharing among high-tech workers’, Int. J. Knowledge Management Studies,
Vol. 4, No. 3, pp.233–247.
Biographical notes: Iris Reychav holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering, and
has 10 years’ experience at Motorola in the field of information systems.
She earned her PhD from Bar-Ilan University’s Graduate School of Business
Administration, and did her post-doctoral work at the Faculty of Management
of Tel Aviv University. Today, she is a Senior Lecturer at Ariel University
Centre. Her current research interests include knowledge management, ethics,
virtual communities, internet and customer relationships management.
Jacob Weisberg is the Professor of Management at the Graduate School of
Business at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He served as the Director of the school
and currently Heading the Management and OB area. He received his PhD