Knowledge Management International Conference (KMICe) 2014, 12 – 15 August 2014, Malaysia http://www.kmice.cms.net.my/ 388 Motivating Attributes to Social Media for Knowledge Sharing Success Hayati Abdul Jalal 1 , Athirah Azman 2 , and Jamilah Laidin 3 1 Faculty Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Perak), Malaysia, hayat836@perak.uitm.edu.my 2 Faculty Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Perak), Malaysia, athirahazmann@yahoo.co.uk 3 Faculty Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Perlis), Malaysia, jamil138@perlis.uitm.edu.my ABSTRACT Social media allows easy and instant communication for knowledge to be shared. Thus, social media may contribute to the success of knowledge sharing among employees. However, identifying motivating attributes of why employees share their knowledge through social media is a matter of concern. This research provides a theoretical foundation illustrating how motivating attributes to social media can facilitate the success of knowledge sharing among employees. Panahi, Watson and Partridge’s (2012) model of potential contributors of social web tools to knowledge share was adopted in this empirical examination. Drawing on evidence from the survey, the research concludes that increasing information visibility for knowledge articulation and developing networking with colleagues were the most important motivating attributes for social media in increasing the success of employee’s knowledge sharing. This research offers recommendations in relation to mechanisms for monitoring social media activities for knowledge management initiatives. Lesson and implications for both theory and practice are discussed in the paper. Keywords: Social media, motivation, knowledge sharing success. I I’TRODUCTIO’ In the search for competitive advantage, scholars suggest that knowledge and social media can contribute to organizational outcomes that are difficult to imitate (Barney, 1991; Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, and Silvestre, 2011). Social media, a medium that allows the activities of employing mobile and web3based technologies for creating interactive platforms for knowledge sharing, enables the society to interact with people around the world within a few clicks (Kietzmann et al., 2011; Muniandy and Muniandy, 2013; Zande, 2013). Social media can facilitate organizational sharing knowledge as it allows easy and instant communication by removing barriers and boundaries of different organizational structure and hierarchy (Adamovic, Potgieter & Mearns, 2012). The literature provides evidence on the role played by social media in facilitating knowledge sharing among employees. For example, Zande (2013) suggests that social media promotes knowledge sharing for learning processes. Panahi et al., (2012) emphasize the importance of social media for creating knowledge sharing culture. Adamovic et al., (2012) suggest the importance of social media as a communication medium for organisational members to engage in knowledge sharing. While sharing professional knowledge on social media has been seen as sharing tacit knowledge, personal information shared online improves organisational network relationships (Bakhuisen, 2012; Panahi et al., 2012). Cost saving and easy to be employed increases the chance of employees to utilize social media as interactive platforms for sharing knowledge (Panahi et al., 2012). Social media also enables text communication and interactive videos and pictures to be shared. As such, employees are more comfortable to use social media rather than face to face communication as social media is faster and interesting ways to communicate (Clutterbuck & Hussain, 2010). Several attempts have been made to model the potential motivating attributes of social media for knowledge sharing as well as a number of identifiable attributes believed to influence its performance. However, very little research has been done to determine the motivating attributes to social media for knowledge sharing success that are preferred by employees, as well as their relationships with social media utilization. This research attempts to fill this void and will empirically examine these relationships in the Malaysian Service Training Department. Panahi et al.’s (2012) model of potential contributors of social web tools to knowledge share was adopted in this empirical examination. It is postulated that ability to socialize online, best practices demonstration, networking with colleagues, interactive storytelling, increasing information visibility and archiving articulated knowledge, and openness and trust might exhibit desirable values for successful knowledge sharing. Based on previous research (e.g. Panahi et al., 2012) these attributes play a significant role in defining the relationship between employees’ expectations and opportunities to break obstacles to knowledge management outcomes. Specifically, the question guiding this empirical investigation is: what is employees’ motivating attributes to share knowledge on social media?