For Some Workers, Secrecy is the Norm When it Comes to Passing Along What
They Know
When workers find a better way to perform a job, they often
keep their discoveries to themselves.
When it comes to job knowledge, usually few know more about
it than the person performing the assignment.
Employees accumulate a wealth of information about their
jobs and, along the way, develop efficiencies that make them more productive.
Yet, they are often reluctant, for various reasons, to pass along that knowledge
to others within the organization, says Dr. David Zweig, an assistant
professor of organization behavior at the University of Toronto.
Knowledge sharing is often one of the most troubling
issues facing employers and they keep trying to develop effective ways to
encourage employees to share what they have learned on their jobs.
It remains a difficult goal, says Zweig.
Companies consider knowledge acquired on the job as
belonging to the organization and it is critical that it be shared. But often
employees do not see it that way.
Zweig and colleagues Dr. Susan Brodt and Dr. Jane Webster
of Queens University, Dr. Catherine Connelly of McMaster University, Dr. Sim
Sitkin of Duke University, Dr. Graham Brown of Singapore Management University
and Dr. Sandra Robinson of the University of British Columbia have been studying
why people are reluctant to share their knowledge. They will be presenting their
findings at the annual conference of The Society for Industrial and
Organizational Psychology in Dallas May 5-7.
Knowledge sharing differs from industry to industry, says
Brodt, who with Sitkin has been studying secrecy in high tech companies. Just
the nature of the work in some organizations, such as the amount of sensitive or
proprietary information, highlights the need for secrecy. To deal with the issue
of what should and should not be disclosed (and to whom), most workplaces have
developed norms, that is, informal rules quite separate from formal policies,
for handling information. Unfortunately, Brodt notes, these norms end up not
being very helpful, leaving employees to cope with vague or incomplete or even
conflicting guidance about what to share with whom.
The pitfalls of secrecy norms are that they often lead to a
work climate where everyone keeps knowledge to themselves, which, in turn, may
hinder productivity.
Dr. Robinson and Dr. Browns research has found that
people with critical knowledge will often protect it as if it were their own
property and we have found that people will engage in different behaviors to
hide knowledge from others, says Zweig.
Along with Dr. Connelly and Dr. Webster, Zweigs research
has identified three reasons why employees engage in knowledge hiding. One is
interpersonal and that includes circumstances when people feel that an injustice
has been done to them, they are distrustful of management or feel they are
reciprocating for someone elses behavior toward them.
Closely related are employees who are unsure of themselves
and keep information to themselves. They are afraid of negative job
evaluations and figure they are better off not sharing anything, Zweig says.
A third reason is the organizational climate. If there
is a culture of not sharing and being secretive, then employees tend to adopt
that culture, he added.
Also, hanging on to their job knowledge gives them a sense
of power and importance because they have specific information that no one else
has.
Zweig notes that not all employees refuse to share
information. They are more than willing to provide job knowledge to people they
trust and who treat them fairly.
Companies often turn to technology, encouraging employees
to build databases of knowledge, but if workers are not willing to cooperate,
these efforts are not very productive. Knowledge sharing requires more personal
interaction than person-to-computer links, Zweig maintains.
If organizations want to promote knowledge sharing, and it
is in their best interests to do so, they need to enhance the workplace climate
and make knowledge sharing and collaboration a norm in the workplace. It
could be part of their performance appraisals. If employees know they will be
rewarded for sharing their expertise, they will be more open to doing so, he
says.
He also suggests that if organizations emphasize positive
relationships and trust among employees, then knowledge sharing will become part
of the culture. And that makes everything better, he says.
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For more information, contact Dr.
Zweig at 416-287-5613 and Dr. Brodt at 613-533-3231.
The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
(SIOP) is an international group of 6,000 industrial-organizational
psychologists whose members study and apply scientific principles concerning
people in the workplace. For more information about SIOP, including Media
Resources, which lists nearly 2,000 experts in more than 100 topic areas, visit www.siop.org.
From May 5-7,
SIOP will be holding its annual meeting in Dallas, TX. Top workplace scientists
and practitioners will make some 800 presentations on emerging trends,
developments and the way people function in the workplace.
SIOP Contact:
Clif Boutelle
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
520 Ordway Avenue
Bowling Green, OH 43402
Phone: 419-353-0032
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