The Role of National Culture in Knowledge Sharing: A Multinational Corporation Perspective

In today's 21st Century, there are even more mediums for Information and Knowledge Sharing than ever before. Multinational corporations are geographically dispersed so that information is being shared across different countries and subsequently cultures. They are increasingly experiencing difficulties in creating a culture which all their employees can understand and embrace, due to barriers such as differences in language and interpretation, and knowledge hoarding. This research builds upon the current literature on Knowledge and Information Sharing and the cultural issues associated with this in MNCs. The objective of this paper is to explore, in detail, national culture as a barrier to Knowledge Sharing, as there has been little research into the breakdown of barriers within national cultures and Knowledge Sharing through different communication styles. Primary research through an interpretive approach was carried out on a sample group of 32 employees from a range of different roles and nationalities, through interviews and questionnaires undertaken within the Service Delivery Department of the internationally renowned software company. Barriers to Information Sharing identified were; language and interpretation differences, poor verbal and written communication skills, and differences in national cultures. Egypt and South Africa were identified to be the most favourable countries for their best practices and the countries within Central and Eastern Europe were the least favoured. The research has shown that that there are multicultural and communication issues, associated with Information Sharing throughout the department.