Understand knowledge workers in using KMS for knowledge sharing

Abstract —This study contributes to enrich our understanding of knowledge workers' behavior in continuing knowledge sharing through Knowledge Management System (KMS). We extended Xu and Quaddus post-adoption model by proposing a new perspective on how to understand knowledge workers' behavior by considering different belief and expectation of them. Existing KMS adoption have not thoroughly explored the different belief and expectation of knowledge workers in knowledge sharing (KS). Most of previous model provides limited information in understanding of how the knowledge worker sharing their knowledge through KMS. This study will provide a model to understand knowledge workers' behavior in sharing their knowledge through KMS. Index Terms —Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management System, Knowledge Worker, KMS Adoption. —————————— —————————— 1 I NTRODUCTION ompanies attentions toward the value of knowledge have been dramatically increased in today’s business. They realized that knowledge should be effectively and efficiently managed in order to gain competitive ad-vantages from it. To be a champion in competition and remain innovative in meeting their customers’ demands, companies use KM in supporting their activities. Davenfort and Grover [23] note the way companies man-ages their knowledge becomes a vital integral business functions. Information Technology (IT) has become popular and has been recognized as a potential tool to increase com-panies' performances. IT has been considered as a plat-form in supporting KM implementation. Many organizations are at the least considering to adopting and implement KMS in their organization. Unfortunately KMS implementation is not fully successful as yet. Studies and research in the implementation of KM found various factors hindering KM implementation. Re-search by KPMG in 2000 founded only 7 percent of companies admitted technology as a barrier to successful implementation of knowledge management. Other barri-ers are related to non-technological problem. In relation to a previous research study conducted by Dyer [12] found out people and culture as the main barriers in KMS implementation. Organizations now pay more attention on why people and culture became barriers to KMS implemen-tation. Several studies have been conducted in order to un-derstand how people and culture contributed to the KM im-plementation. Understanding people and culture is im-portant for companies because it would lead to the develop-ment of appropriate policies and strategies to deal with KMS implementation. Understanding and creating conditions under which IT will be accepted and used in organization remains a high priority within the IT research community [25]. The aim of this study is to increase our understanding of how peoples’ behaviour can contribute to the success of KMS implementation. We consider people as our focus because they are the key factor in applying KMS. In KM initiative, people who interact with KMS are known as a knowledgea-ble worker. There are two categories of knowledgeable workers, known as contributors and seekers. A contributor is people who contribute knowledge to KMS while a seeker is the one who looks for knowledge through KMS. Studies on knowledge workers’ behaviour in using KMS have been conducted using the general perspective of knowledge worker. It has made our understanding of knowledge behaviour much better. Unfortunately contribu-tor and seeker have different belief and expectation when using KMS [15]. Understanding of knowledgeable worker in general perspective could bring companies the lack of ap-propriate strategy and policy to deal with their belief and expectation. To get comprehensive information about the contributor and seeker belief, we need to construct and pre-dict the behaviour of knowledgeable worker He and Wei [15] propose to redefine our understanding about perceived usefulness; they come with question, “Does perceived usefulness always mean improved work performance? ” Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor.