Knowledge Sharing

1. SHARING WHAT WE KNOW
– STRIVING TO CREATE A
KNOWLEDGE SHARING CULTURE
An Empirical Study of the Knowledge Sharing Attributes
Among Education City Libraries in Qatar
S.C.Kumaresan Dr. B.S.Swrooprani
Head Librarian Prof. P.G. Department of Library
Academic Bridge Program & Information Science
Qatar Foundation Bishop Heber College
Doha. Tiruchirapalli.

2. QATAR…
Qatar is a sovereign Arab state, located
in the Middle East on the north-eastern
coast of the Arabian Peninsula.
Has the world's largest per capita
production and proven reserves of
both oil and natural gas in the world.
Since 2010, Qatar has the world's
highest GDP per capita making it the
number one richest country in the
world.

3. HIGHER EDUCATION IN QATAR….
 Higher Education in Qatar is steered by Qatar Foundation for Education,
Science and Community Development a private, chartered, non-profit
organization founded in 1995.
 Qatar Foundation's flagship ‘Education City’ (EC), where most of its member
institutions are located, offers education from early years to university.
 There are 16 universities and colleges in Qatar and out of which 10 are in the
Education City.
 These includes Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, North western, Georgetown,
Weil- Cornell, Virginia Common Wealth, University College of London, HEC
Paris, Faculty of Islamic studies & Academic Bridge Program.

4. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY…
The purpose of the study is to understand the attributes of knowledge sharing and
See if there is a culture of sharing among employees in libraries. To accomplish the
purpose the following objectives were formulated.
 To understand the attributes towards sharing tacit knowledge.
 To identify the channels of communication between the employees.
 To know the employees’ perception about how much of a sharing culture exists in
their libraries.
 To know what the employees’ perception are about knowledge sharing and how it
has impacted them.
 To know if they are ready for a formal knowledge sharing and management tool to
be used for capturing, organizing, storing and sharing vital tacit knowledge.

5. POPULATION, DATA COLLECTION & RESEARCH METHOD
A study sample of 60 employees were chosen randomly from 80 library
professionals.
A self-administered online questionnaire was designed in ‘Google Documents’ with
an introductory note and the link was emailed to all the participants to respond.
The research questionnaire was designed with the standard five-point Likert scale,
that included options like “Strongly Disagree (SDA), Disagree (DA), Neither Agree
nor Disagree (NADA), Agree and Strongly Agree (SA)”.
The results were analysed using the SPSS software version 16.5 and ranked based
on the Weighted Arithmetic Mean for each statement in the questions.
(cont…)

6. Cont…..
Responses were received for various statements made under several sections and
the data taken for this presentation is from the following four.
 Attributes Towards Knowledge Sharing in Education City
 Perception on the benefits of Knowledge Sharing
 Knowledge Sharing Culture
 Is it time to have a formal KM tool?

7. ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
Demography
Top Management
19%
Senior
Management
9%
Hierarchy
Middle
Management
35%
Technical Staff
28%
Support Staff
9%

8. Gender Education
Male
19%
Female
81%
High School
diploma
2%
Associate's
degree
5%
Bachelor's
degree
19%
Master's
degree
65%
Doctorate
Degree
0% Others
9%

9. Nationals
5%
Expatriates
95%
Residency Status
≤ 1 year
7%
1 - 5
years
42%
6 - 10
years
44%
Tenure in Qatar
11 - 15
years
2%
16 - 20
years
0%
≥ 20
years
5%

10. Attributes Towards Knowledge Sharing Tacit Knowledge
 Majority of the employees (90%) feel that knowledge sharing that is being done
is usually up to date and are very useful for their work.
 86.72% of the employees in the education city feels that vital knowledge is
being freely shared by all in their libraries.
 76.70% says that they do share their knowledge, lessons learned in meetings,
workshops etc., with their colleagues in the library.
 70% of the employees feel that knowledge/information, in my library are
primarily stored in electronic format.
 49% of the employees feel that they share their knowledge/information/
experiences with colleagues by training them.

11. PERCEPTIONS ON THE BENEFITS OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING
 88.37% employees feel that sharing knowledge/information would translate
into deeper organizational knowledge in their organization.
 88% employees feel that they have learnt a lot from their colleagues in their
library through sharing knowledge/information.
 79% of the employees feels that sharing knowledge/information with colleagues
within their libraries have helped in strategic library planning.
 72% of the employees feels that sharing knowledge/information with colleagues
have resulted in new ideas and solutions.
 49% of the employees feels that sharing knowledge/information with colleagues
in their library had been the single most important factor in developing their
expertise.

12. IMPEDIMENTS TO SHARING
Language
24%
Culture
38%
Religion
10%
Political
9%
Policies
15%
No barrier
4%

13. KNOWLEDGE SHARING CULTURE
 81% of the employees feel that there is a culture of sharing
knowledge/information among colleagues in the Education City libraries.
 81% of the employees feel that “open communication” is a characteristic of their
library in general
 81% of the employees feel that the people they report to always keeps them
informed about what is happening with regards to their work.
 79% of the employees feel that they can express freely what they think with
regards to their work, even if it means disagreeing with the people they report
to.
 74.50% employees feel that they can get any information/knowledge with
regards to their job without any difficulty from their colleagues in the library.

14. IS IT TIME TO HAVE A FORMAL KM TOOL?
Yes
84%
No
16%