Determinants of the knowledge diffusion process among professionals in the IT sector
Determinants of the knowledge diffusion process among professionals in the IT sector

Summary/Abstract: Today, knowledge has become dominant, creating a new dimension of theeconomy, a new society and a new employee. Knowledge workers haveemerged as the core of a modern organisation’s staff, and their job is toconvert information into knowledge. The process of diffusion of these keyorganisational players’ knowledge is critical, as it determines its availabilityto other employees. Both the character and importance of specialistknowledge diffusion require a detailed analysis of the process. Therefore,the main research goal of the study is to determine the conditions for thisprocess in the IT sector. The method of triangulation was selected for thisresearch. The procedure for obtaining empirical data consisted of threestages – direct semi-structured individual interviews, focus group onlineinterviews (FIGO), a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) anda computer-assisted web interview (CAWI-based DYI). Then, Spearman’srank-order correlation coefficient was used. It was found that knowledgeworkers are most likely to participate in the diffusion of high-context, personalisedand tacit knowledge. Knowledge sharing is the subprocess ofknowledge transfer, most conservatively approached by professionalswho fear the uncontrolled transmission of their specific knowledge. Closedand conservative attitudes were clearly observed in the transmission ofknowledge between staff (employees other than knowledge-workers) andstakeholders. They suggest the targeted or intuitive use of knowledge protectionstrategies, especially in inter-organisational cooperation relationships.The considerations presented contribute theoretically and practicallyto the diffusion of professional knowledge. They set a frameworkfor designing the knowledge dispersion management subsystem as thechief element of the overall organisational knowledge management system,due to the subprocesses constituting knowledge transfer, the type ofknowledge exchanged, and the group of knowledge agents involved in itscirculation. Identifying critical conditions that support the knowledge diffusionof professionals could help practitioners create an effective systemof knowledge transfer that meets knowledge workers’ requirements andstimulates the flow of the preferred types of knowledge in the planned anddesired directions among selected groups of knowledge agents.

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