Knowledge sharing in higher education institutions: Perspectives from Malaysia

This paper seeks to examine the factors and barriers that contribute to successful knowledge sharing among the university teaching staff.

Based on an extensive review of literature, measures of knowledge sharing are identified. These include such factors as nature of knowledge, working culture, staff attitudes, motivation to share and opportunities to share. A model is developed for the study and hypotheses are formulated. Primary data were collected through a survey from a sample of teaching staff from both public and private universities in Malaysia.

Based on empirical research, the study shows some contrasting findings. As for the sample drawn from teaching staff belonging to public universities, there is a significant relationship between knowledge sharing and the independent factors mentioned earlier. Results from the sample from staff teaching in private universities do not show such relationships.

The sample size itself and the generalisation of results to teaching staff from higher education institutions in Malaysia constitute a major limitation.

The findings of the study provide useful insights to management of higher education institutions in providing facilities to enhance knowledge sharing among teaching staff.

The study makes a valuable contribution, given that there is a dearth of empirical studies of this nature focusing on the South East Asian region.