To share or not to share? A study on the influence of performance reward on knowledge sharing: factors, barriers and recommendations

In today’s highly competitive business environment, organisations with the best information have greater opportunity to succeed. One of the challenges of knowledge management is that of getting people to share their knowledge (Skyrme, 2002). Traditional incentives such as bonuses are not always enough to change behaviour of employees toward sharing knowledge (Stevens, 2000). Career advancement and performance appraisal seem to be creating a mentality of fear that deter employees from sharing knowledge in organisations (Chaudhry, 2005). Based on a review of existing literature, this paper discusses the possibilities of performance reward showing negative influence on knowledge sharing among employees. The study hopes to reveal some potential barriers to knowledge sharing related to performance reward. This paper alsoworks to provide some recommendations on how to encourage knowledge sharing in organisations without giving much attention on performance reward.