Does the knowledge-sharing platform specialist matter in knowledge sharing for secured KMS?

2.1 Knowledge-sharing platforms

In the context of knowledge management, a knowledge-sharing platform (KsP) is a technology-led medium through which people interact, share, and contribute knowledge either formally or informally to a knowledge repository [17] used the term to describe a web site that allows knowledge sharing regarding questioners, answerers, and advertisers. This leads to a crisscross of these groups engaged in shared knowledge, competencies, and skills. With the transition from the face-to-face knowledge sharing to technology or web-based knowledge sharing, the quality of knowledge continues to become more productive as more people participate, create, and contribute relevant knowledge into the knowledge-base. For successful participation and extensive use of KsP, [18] recommended that top management should approach knowledge sharing in ways that motivate more people to participate and use the sharing platforms. The authors argued that reward systems encourage more employees to have the ego to share and contribute knowledge than to resort to mandatory or enforcement measures. Examples of knowledge-sharing platforms (KsPs) are BoostHQ, Web 2.0, and its advanced versions, and blogging technology [19, 20]. A KsP’s architecture is essential to what knowledge is intended to be shared, and that the successful sharing outcomes depend on the efficient management of the KsP.

Tacit and explicit knowledge get codified, organized, and formatted into storable and accessible forms to ease knowledge retrieval. Though it is mostly difficult to codify tacit knowledge [21, 22], the representation of tacit knowledge in some forms of meaningful patterns is useful in the process of accumulating all knowledge kinds, including embedded knowledge. [23, 24] argued that social interaction facilitates knowledge construction and negotiation. This suggests that knowledge sharing is much influenced by the nature of social ties exhibited through the socio-cultural dynamics within the organization. Essential and social relations are appropriate for high-quality knowledge, and they are a priority for collaborative knowledge sharing. In this sense, a KsP opens up new opportunities for knowledge creation and application between individuals, teams, or departments [25].

To accomplish close and effective collaboration between employees, a KsP’s design, particularly the user interface, is required to be more user-friendly to ease barriers of user participation [26]. Participation is the first level of acceptance for successful knowledge-sharing outcomes. A well-design KsP helps to reduce costs, increase productivity through knowledge innovation, and enrich employee sharing capabilities through their idiosyncratic inputs for more collective gains across the organization. For instance, KsPs improve customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty and retention when solutions can be provided in real-time. Employees get satisfied with their job performance because they can address problems on the shared platform, which further increases their knowledge-sharing behavior [27]. Besides, a KsP offers context-based job orientation or training for new hires in a faster and efficient means than the traditional manual or document-based.

Interestingly, [28] articulated that KsP is seen as a talent and expertise-discovery platform through which employees of excellent ideas can be identified and rewarded for their spectacular contributions. Also, prominent topics that attract extensive discussions are clues for reshaping or re-aligning some corporate strategies for improved organizational performance. Thus, to facilitate the work of managers and supervisors, reports on shared knowledge and their performance data on both users and the system are useful to top management. This enables senior management to assess whether or not it is worth investing in KsP. Moreover, scalable KsP allows for flexible integration with other systems and devices. To a greater extent, the use of mobile devices for mobile operations supported by KsP enhances the work of remote knowledge workers. Consequently, [11] explained that processes get streamlined, and collaboration becomes open to all employees, and this promotes a trusted-sharing culture for effective leverage of knowledge across the organization. Given this premise, the role of KsPS in the management of KsP is crucial for the realization of these benefits, as mentioned earlier, of using KsP.

2.2 Functional role of KsPS

There are many KM roles for knowledge management initiatives. Roles are structured as being managerial at the macro level, and operational at the micro-level. As suggested by [29], such macro-level roles include knowledge discovery advancement and application, implementing and managing knowledge infrastructure, negotiating contracts and managing relationships with external knowledge producers, contributing to knowledge creation and utilization, designing and implementing the process of the codification of knowledge, measuring and evaluating knowledge-value creation, developing quality knowledge strategy, and managing other knowledge managers (e.g., a KsPS, knowledge analyst, and knowledge synthesizer). The role expectations of the KsPS are primarily directed towards platform management in KMS. They may overlap with some of the activities of operational knowledge managers (e.g., knowledge editor, knowledge transfer engineer, and knowledge broker) at the micro-level. Depending on the KM strategies, KM roles may vary from one organization to another.

A knowledge-sharing platform specialist (KsPS) refers to information technology and knowledge management professional who is responsible for managing and authenticating knowledge-sharing platforms to ensure organization-wide high-quality knowledge repository. Knowledge generated is not merely stored in the knowledge repository. Instead, they are subject to further processing activities to take the form of the right accessible formats. According to [13], a KsPS functions as a mediator between participants (i.e., sharer and recipient) active on the KsP. The authors illustrated that when a question is put on the platform, the KsPS identifies experts deemed appropriate to answer the pending question. When an answer is provided, and contributions from other related experts adjudged it to be the correct solution, the KsPS repackages the solution into usable formats and store it into the knowledge-base for future reuse. Such new knowledge from experts can be shared and internalized by others to suit their job contexts.

Moreover, the KsPS articulates knowledge generation policies, principles, and codifying standards representative of specific knowledge needs. Knowledge needs analysis is essential to augment knowledge-sharing platform strategies. The choice of a KsP may be influenced by factors such as organizational culture, existing social ties, KM strategies, state of the existing knowledge infrastructure, number of participants, and knowledge exchange policies. However, codified knowledge is best understood and applied when it is in its simplest and easily accessible formats –texts, audio, video, and images. Further, as pointed out by [30], proper knowledge packaging given friendly search tools contribute to effective knowledge retrieval from the knowledge-base. Though employees are free to provide their inputs using KsP, not all kinds of information may be relevant and stored as part of the intellectual capital of the organization. Thus, the KsP has to be intelligent to enable KsPS to siphon the relevant knowledge out of the mundane. In the KMS environment, different teams or departments may have different platform interfaces either within or across the organization [28]. It is, therefore, possible for some generated new knowledge to overlap with others, and maybe sometimes represented or codified inappropriately. Thus, there is the need to have the KsPS to verify, validate, and organize the new knowledge before storing it into the knowledge repository. Hence, the KsPS ensures knowledge consistency and integrity between a knowledge source and a knowledge recipient. In this sense, privacy, trust, and confidentiality are critical factors to increase user participation in knowledge sharing [18].

The role of the KsPS is significant in the exchange of knowledge that takes place between the knowledge source and the knowledge recipient. At each end of the spectrum, the knowledge providers possess unique, inner interactive behavior for knowledge creation/co-creation. In contrast, the knowledge recipients exhibit a unique disposition to knowledge refinement and utilization. It is expected of knowledge producers to identify, prepare, and convert possessed knowledge into forms that meet the absorptive capacity of knowledge seekers. Based on the knowledge predisposition of knowledge recipients, knowledge sharing becomes successful when there is much commitment from knowledge recipients to own, nurture, and internalize knowledge [31]. Given an intelligent and reliable sharing platform, the KsPS facilitates a fertile environment for effective knowledge sharing. Successful KsPS have attributes such as experience in leadership, negotiation skills, competencies, and rich understanding in KMS management, interpersonal communication skills, and appropriate ICT skills. It is, therefore, vital for the KsPS to be effective in overseeing the traffic flow and management of the sharing platform and enrich the knowledge-base (see Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1

Interactive role of KsPS in knowledge sharing.

As part of the role expectations, the KsPS is responsible for identifying questions, suggestions, or comments on the KsP that is context-specific and solutions searchable from the knowledge-base. The KsPS monitors all activities of participants and ensures that feedback on knowledge requests are done in real-time, and authorized knowledge sharers and recipients at any given time to effect knowledge exchange or transfer. For inter-organizational knowledge transfer or sharing, the KsPS assists remote knowledge workers with platform support, including conferencing and library functions. Such a library-related function may include electronic library threading and documents unloading into the knowledge repository. In the case of a multi-national level of the organization, the KsPS performs language translations as there may be varying language gaps among knowledge managers in other remote areas.

We, therefore, argue that the role of the KsPS is crucial in the organizational effort to promote knowledge innovation at both ends of the spectrum. At the knowledge source, the KsPS facilitates knowledge package directly or indirectly using some tools and routines [32], and repackage or format newly internalized knowledge at the knowledge recipient [16]. By this rationale, the KsPS employs innovative ways to ensure that collaborative, communications, and technological knowledge capturing tools enhance productive use of KMS for creation, storage, and utilization of knowledge in specific contexts [33]. With the mediated role between the knowledge source and the knowledge recipient, the KsPS ensures privacy, trust, and confidentiality between the parties engaged in knowledge sharing [11, 13]. If employees repose trust and confidence in the system, they can be sure of their privacy on knowledge objects, which can further spike positive knowledge-sharing behavior.

Knowledge sharing is the exchange of knowledge between a source entity and a recipient entity. Past studies have shown that successful knowledge sharing occurs when the recipient unit can internalize knowledge for improved task performance [16, 32]. In knowledge sharing, an entity that possesses the knowledge must be willing to share, and the recipient of the knowledge must have the absorptive capacity to internalize knowledge acquired [2, 43]. If there are large entities such as between departments or organizations involved in the knowledge sharing, [34, 35] preferred to term such movement of knowledge as knowledge transfer regardless of any reciprocity. Whether or not knowledge is shared or transferred, what remains significant is the nature and context of knowledge package applicable as it undergoes its life cycle.

Knowledge sharing is a multifaceted concept. Numerous factors influence an individual’s capacity and intention to share knowledge. Both internal and external factors influence people’s intention to share knowledge, including departments within an organization [34] found that employees who are not executives are more influenced by factors. such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, organization, technology, and culture to share knowledge. This suggests that what matters in knowledge sharing is the propensity to collaborate, formulate, and validate new knowledge to increase organizational knowledge.

Securing knowledge assets implies deploying security policies, metrics, and processes that provide high-level support, operations, and access controls for successful knowledge sharing. Tasks such as knowledge creation, representation, manipulation, language definition, and dissemination require security policies throughout the knowledge management process. As noted by [11], organizations need to put in place protective measures to enforce security in knowledge sharing. The authors argued that it is better to include and enforce access control policies such as RBAC as part of knowledge-sharing or transfer operations. This, however, depends mainly on the secure knowledge architecture designed to support knowledge-sharing activities. The notion is that knowledge so created must have the intended users such as “best practices” purported for specific problems. For users to access such knowledge, they need to have access rights. If user-permission constraints are good enough, only verified and authorized users can access the system and for the specific purpose. In this sense, both the sharer and the recipient are motivated to engage in knowledge transfer or sharing. Thus, trust management and control are critical factors for effective knowledge sharing.

3.1 Qualitative approach

We employed a descriptive study in which in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to find out the role expectations of KsPS. The use of the qualitative approach was suitable to obtain rich and detailed information about whether or not the roles of the KsPS are relevant in knowledge sharing and security. Also, with the small number of participants involved in the study [36], the qualitative research allowed for probing for more details concerning some questions. We selected purposively 15 organizations from Ghana that used sharing platforms and managed by KsPSs. The organizations included banks, telecommunications firms, real estate firms, gold mining companies, brewing or distillery firms, building and road construction companies, and higher learning institutions. This was followed by a convenience sampling technique used to collect data from the 18 KsPSs identified.

We based the selection on the role expectations of sharing-platform experts whose core functions related to the monitoring of knowledge-sharing processes such as knowledge creation, security, and sharing that enhance successful knowledge sharing for improved job performance. Before the interviews, an invitation letter was sent to each of the participants through the email system. It was intended to seek first their willingness and dedication to participate in this study. All the 18 knowledge-sharing management experts formally agreed to partake in this study voluntarily. However, based on the scheduled appointment dates for the interviews, one of them (from a banking institution) could not make it but was represented by the IT service project coordinator.

3.2 Data collection

The interviews were conducted using the telephone or Skype and recorded with the permission of the participants. Each interview lasted approximately 35 minutes. The interview was done at the convenient appointment times of the interviewees. We avoided face-to-face interviews due to the pending global pandemic, COVID-19. The data were collected between February and March 2020. The questions asked in the interviews related to strategies adopted by [13] when assessing the essential roles of forum specialists and section leaders in managing forums across multi-functional areas for innovation and quality knowledge sharing. We used open-ended questions to enable us to identify relevant themes that could emerge from the interviews. Two IT assistants and one database administrator were used to pilot test the content validity of the items in the interview guide. The medium used was Skype for the pilot test. We did not pilot test the telephone usage because regular telephone calls are known to be more reliable than Skype. The use of Skype provided virtual face-to-face interaction, though it was susceptible to unstable network traffic flow due to network connection challenges in some parts of Ghana. To be familiar with the data for effective data analysis, notes were taken during the interviews, and where necessary, follow-up questions were asked. Thus, there was a total of thirteen questions asked during the interviews for this study, and these related to:

How does the organization recognize knowledge assets at both micro and macro levels?

To understand the role expectations of the KsPS and to enable thorough analysis, we sourced for documents that detailed job specifications and responsibilities of the KsPS. These were received through the email system even though five of the participants could not provide theirs. The methods of the data collection enabled us to triangulate the findings for optimum validity and conformity. Moreover, we reviewed the IS/KMS literature on the role of KsPS concerning knowledge sharing and knowledge security thoroughly.

3.3 Data analysis

The recordings from the interviews were transcribed. However, in three of the interviews using Skype, some responses from the interviewees encountered technical hitches such as poor network connection, inconsistent audio, and freezing video. This problem affected the transcription of these three interviews’ data, and as a result, not all responses could be transcribed from these participants. These concerns, however, were insignificant in the entire interviews’ data. For sufficient familiarity with the transcripts data, repeated readings were done to aid detailed interpretation and understanding of the content of the interviews, and to clarify ambiguous responses. For confidentiality reasons, as agreed with the participants, we labeled the participants from P01 to P18. This scheme enabled us to shelve the names of the participants because of the delicate nature of the position concerning access to corporate intellectual assets, which makes the companies compete in their respective industries. Moreover, inductive, thematic analysis was used to screen for themes from the transcripts reflecting the contributive roles of the KsPS in knowledge sharing. As explained by [36], thematic analysis is not based on one specific theoretical approach, but instead a flexible way to obtain themes for qualitative analysis.

Further, we used NVivo 12 (QSR International) to code and collate the transcriptions systematically. The coding process was an open one to allow for more iterative and interpretative analysis. Thus, patterns of codes that repeatedly emerged across the interviews’ data were categorized into sub-themes. Subsequently, these sub-themes were aggregated into well-defined themes, and they were labeled based on the content. To validate the emerged themes, the researchers coded the interviews’ data separately. Labels, sub-themes, and main themes that emerged from each researcher were thoroughly examined and discussed together before arriving at a consensus. Ultimately, the agreed themes reflected the key role expectations of the KsPS.

With the investment in KsPs, top management anticipates having some significant benefits. Importantly, the degree of patronage and useful contribution of knowledge through the sharing platform are recipes for increasing knowledge-value creation and innovation. All the participants agreed that the use of the sharing platforms had promoted more robust collaborations between individuals, teams, and departments. Interestingly, one of the participants from the telecommunications company described the existing BoostHQ as reliable and effective in assisting teams in brainstorming topics that were useful and relevant to their respective projects.

Moreover, participants were enthused with the ability to harness informal information, which was overlooked when there were no such sharing platforms. The mere recognition and capture of relevant aspects of employees’ informal information increased their active participation in contributing or sharing knowledge aggressively. A participant made the following remark.

When asked of inferiority complexity between sharers and recipients, one participant gave this comment.

Moreover, participants generate reports either weekly or monthly to examine the degree of interaction or engagement among employees using the KsP. The higher the level of interaction, the more employees become familiar with the platform. Generally, participants attested that the KsPs are multi-dimensional and more user-friendly.

4.2 Senior management’s role in knowledge sharing

Participants were asked about whether or not top management prioritized knowledge sharing. In probing for more details, a question was asked on knowledge-sharing needs analysis by top management. Interestingly, all the participants articulated that senior management was much concerned about employees’ knowledge-sharing efforts. However, six participants refuted that senior management had not provided strategic guidelines to advance knowledge sharing. Often, senior management expected the KsPS to develop strategic knowledge-sharing policies that were consistent with corporate norms and policies.

The role of top management is so important in influencing employees’ attitudes and behaviors toward knowledge sharing. All the participants described senior management as being committed to encouraging individuals and departments to share what they know with others willingly. In terms of achieving project deliverables, team members in the mining companies were motivated to use the sharing platform to speed up project development processes to meet deadlines. This was evident in a comment made by one participant from a mining company.

In addition, most of the participants emphasized the robust and intelligent nature of the knowledge-sharing platforms that allow both employees and customers to contribute to the knowledge-base. Thirteen of the participants pointed out that their sharing platforms are both customer and employee focused. While the Q & A session addresses customers’ needs regarding their transactions with the companies, most chat sessions enabled employees to solve problems relating to their jobs, and where to search for relevant information. One of the participants remarked as follows:

Depending on the sophistication of the sharing platform, participants outlined that their sharing platforms had multiple features that enabled individuals, teams, and departments to perform various knowledge-sharing operations. The participants articulated the multi-dimensional property of the sharing platforms as what motivated most of the employees to engage in creating, contributing, or applying some forms of knowledge.

4.3 KsPS’s role in knowledge sharing and security

Participants admitted that top management appreciated the intermediary role between KsPS and the platform’s users. As part of their role expectations, participants expressed their ability to conduct smart files or knowledge indexing to ease information or knowledge search. They explained that a lack of sufficient knowledge and time constraint about the use of the KsP in terms of identifying and locating relevant knowledge discouraged some workers from becoming active users of the KsP. Participants indicated that they categorized and indexed files or knowledge packages in more innovative ways that eased knowledge search for employees, and this confirms a comment made by one of the participants:

Thus, participants viewed proper packaging of knowledge as vital to employees because the employees could access whatever knowledge they needed and relevant to their jobs through the KsP. As regards the role of KsPS on knowledge retention process, one participant gave the following remark:

Participants addressed knowledge security with much regard to tracking knowledge shared in terms of identity and authentication of the knowledge source. Participants’ control over shared knowledge was expressed in terms of volume, popularity, and most contributing user. For knowledge analytics and reports generation, most of the participants agreed in principle that comparing new knowledge with stored knowledge in the knowledge repository led to the identification of some knowledge gaps. Through knowledge-needs analysis, all the participants expressed a concern that not every user was allowed to access some restrained aspects of the knowledge-base. Hence, only verified and permitted users were able to access such specific knowledge resources.

The interview data further suggested that securing knowledge resources helped to reduce some overheads (such as high cost of information leakage or security breach) because knowledge management initiatives involved huge investments.

Moreover, the results of the interview data showed that companies have different security measures and policies which directly or indirectly related to the expected security for the KsP. Participants underscored the notion that employees’ contributions in most chat forums were, to a greater extent, devoid of mischievous remarks. However, instances where there were such unacceptable utterances or behaviors, the KsPS had to restore order and sanity, and further remind all contributors of the need to respect every single opinion.

Participants described their role in the overall knowledge sharing as an essential supervisory function on sharing behaviors and shared contents. One important responsibility was to determine and predict future knowledge needs to increase intellectual assets based on past discussions on various topics. Also, they emphasized the need to do regular updates using the cloud facility for both implicit and explicit knowledge. With the effort to prevent knowledge loss, participants recommended systems such as a reward system to motivate and increase employees’ participation in sharing their expertise and tacit knowledge. A participant from one of the banks commented as follows:

From the interview data, participants recognized that employee engagement was pivotal to an organizational learning culture. Some participants attested that should there be the absence of platform specialists, teamwork among employees could be significantly affected. For instance, participants from the real estate businesses articulated the value they add to remote workers as they operate from different project sites. Not only did they claim that such a role performance enhanced information or knowledge sharing between individuals and teams but also an increase in productivity and profit.