Application 3 – Annotated Bibliography

Factors Affecting Knowledge Sharing In Information Systems Development Projects *Corresponding Author Abstract: The issue of effective knowledge sharing in organizations is still a dilemma for managers. Even, in the process of knowledge management, knowledge sharing issue attracts more attention of scholars and researchers in the field. It has been emphasized that effective knowledge sharing can even determine the success of projects in organizations. In reality, there are reports on the high failure rate in information systems development projects in organization. In order to address the above mentioned issue, this study with a comprehensive literature review, proposed a conceptual model of the factors affecting knowledge sharing in of information systems development projects. This model suggests that personality factors and leadership qualities have essential role in knowledge sharing among project team members. This model help project managers to identify important factors affecting knowledge sharing, create suitable behavior among their employees and enhance their project success rate.

Keywords: Knowledge Managment; Knowledge Sharing; Information Systems Project; Development Project I. INTRODUCTION Failure has been synonymous with many IT projects over the last four decades. Reasons for failure have been attributed to technological difficulties, organizational and functional problems, managerial issues, and many other reasons.

Traditionally, a project should deliver agreed upon functionality on time and within estimated budget. A comprehensive study conducted by Standish Group International in 1995, which included several thousands of IT project revealed that only 16% of those projects were finished on time, and within the estimated budget; 32% were terminated before they were completed, while the remaining 52% involved costs higher than the original estimates and were completed behind their schedule [1]. The high rate of failed IT projects has become a real and relevant concern of the business environment [2]. One ways of overcome on this problem is effective knowledge sharing among project team members. Knowledge sharing means here as the provision or receipt of task information, know how, and feedback on a product or a procedure [3].

The current study aims to investigate the issue of knowledge sharing among project team members and its effect on the success of projects. Following a comprehensive literature review, the important factors were extracted from relevant literature, and then the relationships among them were discussed. Based on the discussion provided, the relevant hypotheses were developed and a conceptual framework the address the issue of knowledge sharing in information system (IS) project development was suggested.

II. R ESEARCH THEORETICAL BASICS The importance of knowledge management within organization and absorbing knowledge from external links and its effect of the organization success in current turbulent business environment is addressed by scholars. This is because useful knowledge elements are generally widespread in society, and a single organization cannot generate and use all relevant knowledge due to the effects of bounded rationality and limited resources. Consequently, ¿rms operating in this contemporary era have to identify, absorb, and integrate external knowledge to gain and maintain competitive advantage [4]. Knowledge sharing implies a relationship between two parties – one that possesses the knowledge and the other that requires the knowledge. It has been defined as a conscious act to participate in knowledge exchange even when there is no external compulsion to do so. It has also been defined as revealing the presence of pertinent knowledge without necessarily transmitting it in its entirety [5].

Knowledge sharing between employees and within and across teams allows organizations to exploit and capitalize on knowledge-based resources. Many studies have shown that knowledge sharing and combination is positively related to reductions in production costs, faster completion of new product development projects, team performance, firm innovation capabilities, and firm performance including sales growth and revenue from new products and services [6].

There are many studies in the field of knowledge sharing that discusses specific aspects of factors affecting knowledge Seyed Mohammadbagher Jafari * Faculty of Management & Accounting, University of Tehran, Iran [email protected] Neda Zare Suliemani Faculty of Management & Accounting, University of Tehran, Iran [email protected] Abas Khademi Zare Faculty of Management & Accounting, University of Tehran, Iran [email protected] 2015 11th International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology (IIT) 978-1-4673-8511-4/15 $31.00 ©2015 IEEE 338 sharing. Many of these studies have shown that knowledge sharing is strongly linked to corporate culture [7], [8], [9], [10]. Also others expressed that commitment to participate in this knowledge sharing is essential [11]. Other researchers have studied the role of intrinsic motivation in sharing knowledge [12], [13], [14].

Chang et al [15] demonstrate that the predicted interaction, ethics perceived, and attitude towards sharing, have impact on knowledge sharing. Some scholars have considered individual characteristics in knowledge sharing such as [6], [16], [17], [18]. Several researchers have studied the impact of social networks [6], [11], [19], organizational structure [6] and leadership support [20], [21]. In the following part, considering the above mentioned factors, the relationships among them will be discussed.

III. R ESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT This section will provide discussion about the factors extracted from literature in previous section and ground for hypotheses development. A. Project Complexity IS development projects typically coincide with technological and business innovation [22]. Through collaborating and cooperating to reduce the risk of complexity when conducting new product development, the project team enhances organizational learning [23] and accumulates the project knowledge that stems from the development process [24].

Thus, collaboration in complicated tasks is dependent on the partners' knowledge and prior experience within the project teams [25]. IS development is generally highly complicated because it requires business process change and technological adoption. The business clients in a project need require a diverse set of solutions in a given working area [26]. Then, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Hypothesis 1: Project complexity is positively related to dependence on the partner.

B. Expertise Perceived expertise refers to an evaluation of the relevant competencies associated with the exchange partner. In IS literature, expertise refers to the partner's ability to support members of project team for implementing the IS solution [27].

The perceived expertise of the partner can also increase the partner's trust in the customer. Expertise has been found to be a determinant of trust [28] across a variety of contexts, including health care [29]. Spake and Megehee [29] emphasize that expertise plays a key role in the level of trust in the customer–supplier relationship. Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed:

Hypothesis 2: The partner's expertise is positively related to the dependence on the partner.

Hypothesis 3: The partner's expertise is positively related to trust in the partner. C. Communication Frequency Communication frequency is argued to influence customers' opinions about their relationships with their partners [30].

Frequent communication also helps to build and maintain the team's social capital, which is embedded in the team members' relationships [31]. In sum, frequent interaction activity (e.g.

communication) can reduce conflict, reduce transaction costs, strengthen inter-relational cooperation, and improve project performance. All of these benefits increase the dependence on the partner [32] and the trust in the partner [33]. Thus, we propose the following:

Hypothesis 4: The frequency of communication is positively related to the dependence on the partner.

Hypothesis 5: The frequency of communication is positively related to the trust in the partner.

D. Dependence In the project environment, dependence refers to the extent to which participants believe that they depend on the other to carry out their work [34]. If one firm is highly dependent on its partner, it will devote significant effort to fulfill the partner's requests so that it does not lose its status as a valuable partner.

Thus, dependence on a partner has a strong effect on the information exchange in relational behavior [35]. Therefore, we propose the following:

Hypothesis 6: Dependence on the partner is positively related to knowledge sharing.

Hypothesis 7: Dependence on the partner is positively related to trust in the partner.

E. Trust Same as the literature on relationship management, trust has been recognized as an important factor affecting knowledge sharing in virtual communities [36]. In the information systems literature, trust is considered to be a determinant of the effectiveness of the knowledge sharing activities [37]. Under the condition of a high level of trust, the project members are more likely to receive project-related knowledge [38].

Therefore, we propose the following:

Hypothesis 8: Trust in the partner is positively related to knowledge sharing.

F. Empowering Leadership One of the ways organizations could improve efficiency and performance is to empower their employees and let them share what they have, so that other employees may learn from others. In this regard, knowledge sharing is a critical aspect of empowered teams [39]. And the coaching behavior of an empowering leader includes teaching team members how to effectively communicate with one another and encouraging them to collaboratively solve problems, thereby providing opportunities for them to share their knowledge in practice [40], [41]. The empowering leader encourages team members to solve problems together and participate in decision making, 2015 11th International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology (IIT) 339 thereby providing them with opportunities to share their knowledge. Thus:

Hypothesis 9: Empowering leadership will be positively associated with the level of knowledge sharing in IT service project teams.

Based on the discussion provided above, the following conceptual model can be proposed to show the relationships among the factors affecting knowledge sharing in information systems development projects.

Fig. 1 The proposed Conceptual Model IV. C ONCLUSIONS This research, expand our understanding of the sharing of knowledge in information systems development projects. The study also introduces the mechanism of self-reliance as an effective mediator sharing of knowledge in information systems development projects. Managers with study of this type of research will be familiar with important factors affecting knowledge sharing within organizations, especially in the various projects and will be able to spread the correct way of this behavior among their personnel. Identifying and corrective implementation of such factors will make projects implementation success for organizations.

As we advance in our knowledge-based society, the individual autonomy and creativity are more important, and it seems appropriate that consider empowerment as a prominent role in increasing of team performance for doing tasks based on knowledge. Leaders should commit themselves to this style of leadership, and consciously reflect it on their management behavior. However, further studies are needed to confirm these results in different conditions. Comparing the results from different studies on this model can provide the managers with a better understanding of the effects of knowledge sharing on the success of IS development projects. With the development of research in this area, if the positive impact of sharing knowledge in information systems projects and other projects specified, certainly it will cause the growth, development and progress in various areas and industry related to information systems.

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