KNOWLEDGE SHARING THROUGH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN SPORT DIVISION OF HOCHIMINH CITY CULTURE, SPORT AND TOURISM DEPARTMENT

Abstract

Information Technology, which characteristics were flexibility and complexity, is emerged as a useful tool of knowledge-based for organization to compete in the new era of the knowledge economy (Shieh-Cheih et. al., 2005). Knowledge sharing or flow is the cornerstone of knowledge management (Szulanski, 1996; Gupta & Govindarajan, 2000). The purpose of this research were (1) to study knowledge sharing behavior of officers through information technology and (2) to compare knowledge sharing behavior between manager and non-manager in Sport Division of Hochiminh City Culture, Sports and Tourism Department, Viet Nam. There are two hypotheses for this study: (1) the knowledge sharing behavior between officers in this organization will be significant different; (2) Managers put more frequency and effort of sharing than non-managers. One hundred and twenty-four officers, selected by simple random sampling method (24 managers, 104 non-managers) were administered by two self- report questionnaires: effort of sharing - Cronbach’s α coefficient = .92 – adjusted from Kalman (1999), Torkzadeh & Doll (1999) and frequency of sharing adjusted from research by Igbaria et al. (1995). Content Validity Index of instrument was 1.00. The questionnaires were developed in the Viet Nam language and then were translated into English by experts in linguistics.

The results showed that there were a high level of sharing effort for managers and non-managers, moderate level of sharing frequency for managers and high level of sharing frequency for non-managers. Besides, the findings also showed that there was significantly different in sharing effort between managers and non-managers (p < .001) and vice versa for sharing frequency (sig = .083 > 0.5). The conclusion is that managers and non-managers in Sport Division of Hochiminh City Culture, Sport and Tourism Department are more likely to share knowledge through information technology and all of them are good potential knowledge sharers. Finally, this study has demonstrated that a “knowledge-sharing” culture is important in all organizations.