Factors Affecting Knowledge Sharing Practice Among Employees Of Culture And Tourism Centres In Selected Regions Of Ethiopia

Abstract

Knowledge has been known as a vital asset for sustaining competitive benefit. So, organizations, such as those in intellectuals and business are turning to the use of the intangible intellectual source of economy, which is knowledge, in order to be competitive over the world. Therefore, to be competing needs to acquire, utilize and share knowledge. Sharing knowledge is the main backbone of knowledge management, because having knowledge is meaningless unless it is shared and allowed it to be used by others. Among various sector, Tourism is a service industry and its management practices are highly focused on the efficiency and effectiveness of the information and knowledge exchanges that happen between the different organizations that need to collaborate to deliver composite products. The major objective of the study is to identify the factors affecting knowledge sharing Practice among employees of culture and Tourism centers in selected regions of Ethiopia. Cross-sectional study design was conducted in Major Tourist Attraction areas: Addis Ababa, Oromiya, Bahirdar and SNNP, Ethiopia. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 227 study participants. Data was analyzed for descriptive statistics like percentages and one way-ANOVA was done. According to the finding of the study, the proportion of knowledge sharing practice is 43.2% and the factors that are associated with knowledge sharing includes: Job classification (mean score= 1.95), Work experience (mean score= 1.82), Receive appropriate financial value when you sharing know how,( mean score= 1.79) and Motivation scheme (mean score= 1.51) are factors that extremely affect knowledge sharing practice. Educational status (mean score=2.94), Motivation (mean score= 2.67), Free access to the document (mean score= 2.84), Knowledge sharing to get chance of promotion (mean score= 2.42), Admiration (mean score= 2.61), Knowledge sharing to show skills (mean score= 2.59), influences the Knowledge sharing practice in a very high manner. Monthly income (mean score= 3.52) influences the Knowledge sharing practice in a high manner. The most common communication channels practiced and barrier were face to face communication (55.1%) and lack of infrastructure (55.5%) respectively. Generally, the level of knowledge sharing is low and it is extremely influenced by job classification, work experience, financial velue reception, and presence of motivational scheme. Therefore, the Culture and Tourism office should be able to work to improve knowledge sharing practice by considering the factors and barriers reported.