Information and Knowledge Management
Davood Ghasemzadeh; Mohamadbagher Alizadehaghdam
Abstract
IntroductionThe main purpose of the present research is to study the relationship between the cultural collectivism dimension and knowledge sharing among graduate students of Tabriz University. The necessity of the current research stems from the fact that the relationship between cultural collectivism ...
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IntroductionThe main purpose of the present research is to study the relationship between the cultural collectivism dimension and knowledge sharing among graduate students of Tabriz University. The necessity of the current research stems from the fact that the relationship between cultural collectivism and knowledge sharing has not been discussed in domestic research, and in a sense, a kind of research gap is felt in this field, and this deficiency can be seen even in foreign studies. Research Question(s)1. What is the level of knowledge sharing among graduate students?2. What is the relationship between the acquisition of knowledge and cultural collectivism?Literature ReviewMany thinkers such as Bahagat et al. (2002) use the cultural individualism-collectivism dimension as a main feature in identifying how different societies analyze social behaviors and information processes. Bhagat argues that cultural individualism and collectivism apply to what information people prefer and provide for processing (Liu, 2010:162). Triandis (1988) introduced the dimensions of person-centeredness-type-centeredness along with individualism and collectivism. Triandis (1988) introduced the dimensions of person-centeredness-type-centeredness along with individualism and collectivism. In this regard, Triandis (1995) summarized four key features in this spectrum: self-concept, goal relationships, relative importance of attitudes and norms, and emphasis on relationships. Bahagat et al. (2002) grouped the horizontal and vertical characteristics in the sense of understanding how different national cultures are processed through the representation of individualism and collectivity. They examined the role of horizontal and vertical individualism and horizontal and vertical collectivism in the transfer of organizational knowledge. They argued that while people in individualistic societies consider information and knowledge independent of its context, collectivist cultures emphasize the context in which information and knowledge exist. According to the term knowledge in action, collectivists are sensitive to context-based information, while individualists focus on knowledge as it relates to individual characteristics. In addition, according to the opinion of Bahagat et al. (2002), collectivist culture emphasizes the importance of tacit knowledge and information, and on the contrary, individualist culture prefers rational analyses based on coded written information. Finally, vertical cultures tend to process information and knowledge based on a hierarchical system in organizations, and horizontal cultures do not focus on hierarchies in processing and organizing knowledge and communication flows (Michilova and Hutchings, 2004).MethodologyThe current research method is a survey and the statistical population includes all graduate students of Tabriz University in the academic year of 2016-2017, whose number is 5589 using Cochran's formula and proportional stratified sampling method (according to faculties), 650 people were selected as the sample size. The unit of analysis in this research is the individual. In this research, to accurately determine the components of Cochran's formula, a preliminary test was used to obtain the variance of the dependent variable (knowledge sharing) as one of the components of Cochran's formula. In order to measure the independent and dependent variables in order to obtain validity, the final modification of the items was done by conducting a pre-test using face validity and Cronbach's alpha. Based on the final evaluation results of the experts, the items have sufficient validity and also the results of the reliability analysis were estimated using Cronbach's alpha to separate the variables. The reliability coefficients for cultural collectivism (0.776), horizontal collectivism (0.765), vertical collectivism (0.768), horizontal individualism (0.780), vertical individualism (0.746) and research dependent variable is 0.812. This indicates that the selected items were suitable for measuring the research variables.ResultsCorrelation test results show a positive and significant relationship between cultural collectivism and student's knowledge sharing. There is also a positive and significant relationship between cultural collectivism components with knowledge sharing. The results of the correlation test indicate that vertical individualism has a negative and significant relationship with knowledge sharing. T-test results show that knowledge sharing does not have a significant difference based on the gender of students. The results of the regression show that the horizontal collectivism and horizontal individualism components of cultural collectivism explain 24% of knowledge-sharing variance.ConclusionThe purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between cultural collectivism and knowledge sharing among graduate students. For some reasons, this research can be beneficial to related studies in this field, firstly, few foreign researches have been conducted regarding cultural collectivism and knowledge sharing, and domestic researches have not investigated the relationship between these two variables. Second, theoretically, this research provides many insights for researchers regarding the study of the relationship between cultural collectivism and knowledge sharing. The results of the correlation test show that cultural collectivism has a positive and significant relationship with knowledge sharing at a high level and in a direct direction. The results also indicate that the dimensions of cultural collectivism, i.e. the horizontal and vertical dimensions, have a positive and significant correlation with the five dimensions of knowledge sharing. It means that the more the graduate students belong to the collectivist culture, the more the amount of knowledge sharing among them increases. It should be noted that horizontal collectivism plays a prominent role in explaining knowledge sharing. This type of collectivism emphasizes equality in relationships and participation. In fact, it can be concluded that there are necessary grounds and conditions for the implementation of a knowledge-sharing culture among graduate students of Tabriz University. This finding is in agreement with the research results of Arpasi and Baloglu (2016), who in their study found a positive and significant role of cultural collectivism on mental attitudes and norms, taking into account the sharing of knowledge, and also aligned with the results of the studies of Michilova and Hutchings (2004) and Sandhu and Ching (2014), Ardicioli et al. (2006). Therefore, universities and higher education centers in order to achieve success in the sharing of knowledge among graduate students in their policies and plans should pay special attention to strengthening the students' group and team working skills.AcknowledgmentsConsidering the current research method and the need to complete the questionnaire, all the students participating in the research are appreciated and thanked.
