An exploratory study on the perception of organizational ownership of explicit and tacit knowledge

Today's organizations make every effort to achieve effective knowledge management, under the recognition that knowledge is a powerful, competitive weapon. For knowledge management to be successful, however, not only should knowledge be voluntarily offered by organizational members but also the organizational ownership of knowledge be perceived among members. In this regard, this study explores antecedent factors of organizational ownership of knowledge based on the extension of previous studies. The analysis of two hundred and fifty-five survey data indicates that cohesion of department or team, propensity to share, and task interdependence are significantly related to organizational ownership. The relationship turns out to be stronger with tacit knowledge than with explicit knowledge. Some suggestions are proposed for enhancing effective knowledge management.