IJMB Journal – Abstracts
International Journal of Management and Business
IJMB Volume II, Issue 1
Social Capital Creation in Shorter Timeframes and its Role in Knowledge Sharing
Kalotina Chalkiti1, Aggie Wegner1, Teresa Cunningham2
1The Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, 2Menzies School of Health Research Kalotina.Halkitis@cdu.edu.au, Aggie.Wegner@cdu.edu.au, Teresa.Cunningham@menzies.edu.au
ABSTRACT
Most of the knowledge sharing discussion has focused on the factors influencing and the role of knowledge sharing in organisational effectiveness and performance. The most common factors relate to an organisation’s structure, infrastructure and practices (e.g. job design), individual employees (e.g. social networks) and types of knowledge (e.g. tacit). This paper is motivated by the assumption within the knowledge sharing literature that labour stability is essential to create and nurture the above knowledge sharing factors. Focusing on the individual factors and in particular the role of social networks in knowledge sharing, this paper aims to understand how properties emerging from social networks, referred to as people knowledge, can be perceived as a form of social capital that is developed in shorter timeframes and supports intra-organisational knowledge sharing in dynamic labour environments. Dynamic labour environments in this research were hospitality businesses experiencing frequent changes in the composition of teams of employees. Indeed the social network literature suggests the need for labour stability for the emergence of social network properties such as social capital. This requirement of labour stability though may be challenged in some contexts and industries such as the hospitality industry of the Northern Territory of Australia. Qualitative data collection techniques were used to acquire data from seventy-six front-office employees of three hotels in Darwin. The findings suggest the emergence of social capital in dynamic labour environments and the important role of social capital in supporting collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Keywords: Social networks, social capital, knowledge sharing, people knowledge, dynamic labour environments, hospitality, Northern Territory (NT)
Click for full manuscript (PDF) or back to Volume II, Issue 1: Table of Contents