An exploration of organisational elements on social media platforms based knowledge sharing of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia

Abd Aziz, NE

Abstract

Knowledge sharing is an important aspect of the life of many organisations, especially academic institutions, in terms of their competitiveness and longer-term survival. However, to ensure the success of knowledge sharing within Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), there is a need to understand the role of knowledge sharing activities in the life of these communities. Social media platforms have emerged as important forums for locating, connecting, collaborating and sharing ideas among the individuals. Nevertheless, despite its importance, there is only limited research that has addressed the role of social media platforms in facilitating knowledge sharing between academic staff. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the organisational elements which influence the social media platforms-based knowledge sharing between academic staff within the context of Malaysian HEIs.

The research adopted a qualitative approach to obtain an in-depth understanding of the subject matter. Data was gathered from thirty-two academic staff members from two public universities and two private universities. A semi-structured interview was the primary method of data collection, and the data was supplemented by documentation.

The findings of this study resulted in the identification of seven key themes, namely, organisational structure, technology infrastructure, organisational strategy, organisational culture, management support, people and skills which all need to be taken into consideration as influential elements for social media platforms based knowledge sharing. Each of these themes and corresponding subthemes were found to have varying impacts on the sharing of knowledge.

The key findings indicated that some of the organisational elements influenced the participants in their use of social media platforms for knowledge sharing. The findings show that the organisational strategy, reward and organisational culture elements were identified as of prime importance in contributing to participants’ use of social media platforms in knowledge sharing. The use of social media platforms for sharing knowledge was perceived as offering participants a means for collaboration by networking, sharing expertise, creating a mutual understanding in the area of interests and disseminating the research or teaching experience of participants with other academic staff within the organisation. Social media platforms were perceived as creatingopenness and willingness to share useful knowledge and experiences

Citation

Abd Aziz, N. An exploration of organisational elements on social media platforms based knowledge sharing of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Feb 5, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 5, 2021
• Award Date: Oct 1, 2020