Cultural Differences in Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Environment

The open talent economy is currently being developed, and a significant part of knowledge workers are moving onto online market places where they work as freelancers instead of working under traditional employment contracts, thus performing a significant part of their work or even all of it in a virtual environment. In this environment they also communicate with their managers or coworkers. This environment is naturally multicultural - workers often collaborate with people from various national cultures. In this article we have sought to answer the following research question: how does the fact that a person is a member of a national culture influence their attitude to knowledge sharing? By knowledge sharing we mean a bipartisan process - both demand for knowledge and providing available knowledge. To answer this question we have used an analysis of available studies on the influence of one's national culture on knowledge sharing, both generally and specifically in a virtual environment. With regard to the current economic position of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region we have mainly focused on the differences among cultures which are considered as Western or Eastern. The main contribution of this article is connecting managerial studies with sociological and psychological findings. On an example of a Western and Eastern specification of national culture we have shown how different the knowledge of the same phenomenon may be in different cultural settings. Subsequently, cultural factors which influence knowledge sharing are determined. Besides the influence of national cultures on knowledge sharing in a virtual environment, we have scrutinized this process also in a real environment; that is in case of face to face collaboration. The reason is the fact that on the one hand freelancers work online, but often meet in person in coworking centers whose number is dynamically increasing worldwide. This gives rise to an interesting situation when a freelancer works independently online, but at the same time is in direct contact with other independent experts. Knowledge sharing is thus extremely intensive and may lead to creative and innovative ideas and projects. In the final part of our article we have summarized the most significant cultural differences which influence knowledge sharing. We have proved that the development of cultural intelligence and cultural metacognition of workers are a way how to make knowledge sharing in a multicultural environment more efficient. This may be achieved in multiple ways which we have mentioned. We have also underscored the importance of further interconnectedness of managerial, sociological and psychological studies.