Influencing factors of Knowledge sharing amongst academics in Western Cape’s Universities and HEIs, South Africa

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) create, disseminate, share, and exchange knowledge through relationships among people, processes, and technologies. Knowledge sharing (KS) in academia enables people within institutions to develop practices that allow them to collect and share what they know. Higher education institutions are knowledge-intensive centres. This often leads to actions that compete to improve services and outcomes. Despite these opportunities, knowledge sharing has implications because it exposes the knowledge sharer and recipient to several vulnerabilities and risks, which influence the knowledge-sharing process. This study investigates factors that influence knowledge-sharing intentions amongst academics in SA institutions of higher learning. The research used an online questionnaire-based survey to collect knowledge-sharing intentions data from personnel at three universities and one TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) college located in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Data analysis was performed using SPSS (Statistical Packages for Social Sciences) and the findings of this study revealed that academics' KS intentions are positively influenced by organisational culture, organisational structure, self-efficacy, and technology literacy. This study has reinforced the understanding of the factors that influence KS amongst academics in South African HEIs.