Record numbers of employees are retiring in Canada (Conference Board of Canada, 2009), and with their exit, copious amounts of organizational knowledge could be exiting too (Collins, 2007). In this thesis, I propose and test a model of attitudes and intentions towards knowledge sharing with 252 retiring and recently retired employees. The results suggested that the partially mediated alternative model fit the data the best, where affective commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived organizational support predicted attitudes towards knowledge sharing, which in turn positively predicted tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions, as well as negatively predicted intentions to hoard knowledge. There were also significant positive direct paths between job satisfaction and intentions to share tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as a significant negative direct path between job satisfaction and intentions to hoard knowledge. Lastly, organizational policies and practices (tacit and explicit), personal perceived knowledge value (tacit and explicit), and financial stake (explicit) were significant moderators. Study findings and limitations, as well as future research directions are discussed.

Organizational memory has significant potential for companies’ competitive advantage, with mentoring considered a particularly effective method of transferring this knowledge. Older workers are often considered ideal mentors because of their experience and alleged willingness to pass on their knowledge. There is an associated assumption that these workers anticipate and experience positive outcomes from mentoring others. This thesis tested if these assumptions hold up in 21st century workplaces - some discriminatory practices towards older workers and a career contract that no longer guarantees employment, may discourage knowledge sharing. An organizational memory scale was constructed to help test the assumptions and an exploratory factor analysis involving 143 employees from eight companies resulted in 21 items and five correlated factors including socio-political knowledge, job knowledge, external network, history, and industry knowledge. Two confirmatory factor analyses, the first involving 287 employees and the second 115 retirees, found support for five correlated first-order factors and a second order factor, organizational memory. In a third study involving 134 employees, support was found for a model of organizational memory and empowerment. Age was found to relate to organizational memory but this relationship was mediated by organizational tenure. In turn, organizational memory was found to relate to psychological empowerment and the frequency with which participants were requested to share knowledge at work. Organizational memory, empowerment and request to train and mentor others also positively related to organization-based self-esteem. In the fourth study, an organizational case study involving 78 employees, support was found for a model of organizational memory and the intention to mentor within the context of an aging workforce. Generativity and the expected cost of the time and effort involved in mentoring mediated the relationship between organizational memory (specifically, socio- political knowledge) and the intention to mentor. Furthermore those participants with high scores on both organizational memory and occupational self-efficacy anticipated more cost in time and effort, and indicated less intention to mentor, than those with high organizational memory but low occupational self-efficacy. These findings challenge the assumption that experienced workers are, as a matter of course, willing to mentor others. In a final study involving 96 retired individuals, there were no significant differences found between retirees with and those without experience as a mentor, in career satisfaction and unwelcome work ruminations. However notably, the study showed that participants did experience unwelcome work ruminations even (as in the case of some) well into retirement. The thesis concludes with a summary of findings as they relate to the assumptions under examination, an outline of the overall implications of the findings for future research and for organizational practice, and closing remarks about the overall research contribution of the thesis.

A major challenge for knowledge management concerns motivating people to share their knowledge with others. Many companies address this challenge by implementing sophisticated knowledge management systems. However, despite investments in knowledge management systems and practices, significant failure rates are being reported. Studies show that an important reason for this is that people are often reluctant to share their personal knowledge. It is therefore key for companies to understand the factors that influence employee attitudes toward knowledge sharing. Previous research on motivation has attempted to understand employee attitudes, intentions and behavior in relation to organizational knowledge sharing. However, few studies have provided a comprehensive model that includes a key set of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators for knowledge sharing, such as self-efficacy, meaningfulness, impact, tangible rewards, verbal rewards, anticipated reciprocal benefits and reputation and examined their relationship with knowledge sharing attitude and intention. The objective of this research is to fill that gap by investigating how the salient intrinsic and extrinsic motivators influence knowledge sharing attitude and intention. From an extensive review of the literature, a research model was proposed and hypotheses were developed to explore the answers to the research questions. Data was collected through a survey in organizations in New Zealand and Partial Least Squares Path Modeling was used to analyze the data. Empirical results showed intention to share knowledge was determined by attitude towards knowledge sharing and self-efficacy, meaningfulness, anticipated reciprocal relationships and reputation had a significant impact on the attitude towards knowledge sharing. This research contributes to the knowledge sharing literature by providing a comprehensive model of knowledge sharing motivators, including motivators that have been largely ignored in prior studies, and by empirically examining the influence of the key intrinsic and extrinsic motivators on attitude towards knowledge sharing. Furthermore, this research benefits companies that are using or setting up knowledge management systems and practices by allowing them to better understand how to encourage employees to engage in knowledge sharing.

Healthcare is a knowledge-intensive field. A significant quantum of extremely vital and viable healthcare knowledge exists in a tacit form, yet due to various operational and technical reasons such healthcare knowledge is not entirely utilized and put into professional practice. The strong increase in expert work and knowledge-intensive fields make examining the topic timely and hypothetically interesting.The most significant contribution of this study is the increase in understanding, as well as, tacit healthcare knowledge sharing amongst physicians and clinicians with the type of collaborative tools and technologies they have at their disposal. Collaborative tools and technologies help employees of an organization work closely with their colleagues, partner organization and other volunteers as tacit healthcare knowledge sharing among clinicians such as sharing of best practices, tips and tricks, inter professional collaborative networking, clinical experiences and skills are known to have a significant impact on the quality of medical diagnosis and decisions.This paper posits that collaboration tools and technologies can provide new opportunities for tacit healthcare knowledge sharing amongst health-experts, and demonstrates this by presenting findings from a review of relevant literature and a survey conducted with Medical Doctors who have moderate to high interaction with collaborative tools and technologies in the healthcare industry. Semi-structure interviews were conducted with health-experts (Medical Doctors and clinicians) of Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. Final thematic analysis unveiled six themes as potential contributors of collaborative tools and technologies in facilitating tacit healthcare knowledge sharing among clinicians. The newly developed themes are described and interpreted briefly; extensive literature review has been carried out to relate the emerged themes with the literatures and part of interview participant responses are supported as well. Finally this research suggests further empirical studies shall be conducted to acknowledge this study.

Record numbers of employees are retiring in Canada (Conference Board of Canada, 2009), and with their exit, copious amounts of organizational knowledge could be exiting too (Collins, 2007). In this thesis, I propose and test a model of attitudes and intentions towards knowledge sharing with 252 retiring and recently retired employees. The results suggested that the partially mediated alternative model fit the data the best, where affective commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived organizational support predicted attitudes towards knowledge sharing, which in turn positively predicted tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions, as well as negatively predicted intentions to hoard knowledge. There were also significant positive direct paths between job satisfaction and intentions to share tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as a significant negative direct path between job satisfaction and intentions to hoard knowledge. Lastly, organizational policies and practices (tacit and explicit), personal perceived knowledge value (tacit and explicit), and financial stake (explicit) were significant moderators. Study findings and limitations, as well as future research directions are discussed.

Capturing and sharing individual and organisational knowledge is vital for organisational functioning. Knowledge management systems (KMS) are information technology systems which enable employees to electronically capture and distribute knowledge across the organisation. Because knowledge sharing is often a discretionary behaviour requiring time and energy on behalf of employees, the success of KMS largely relies on their motivation and willingness to share. KMS implemented within organisations have been largely ineffective with failure rates of 80% documented in the knowledge management literature. There is a need for further understanding of the barriers and facilitators for employee contributions to KMS. In particular, there is a dearth of empirical research examining the role of social and organisational factors in knowledge sharing on KMS. To this end, a programme of research was developed which utilised normative and social exchange perspectives to explain employee knowledge sharing on KMS. A combination of research methodologies were employed across five field-based studies. The aim of Study 1 was to identify the determinants of knowledge sharing on KMS. In Study 1, qualitative data were collected through 16 in-depth interviews with employees from a medium-sized private sector organisation. While several barriers and facilitators were identified, the most prevalent themes to emerge from the content analysis were perceived benefits and management support, highlighting the central role of social exchange and normative processes in explaining employee knowledge sharing on KMS. The results of Study 1 were used in conjunction with previous research to design the subsequent quantitative studies. Study 2 examined the mediating role of perceived benefits in the management support – knowledge sharing intentions relationship. It used a cross-sectional survey design and sampled 41 employees from a large private sector organisation. Three main findings emerged. First, management support was positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Second, perceived benefits were positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Third, perceived individual benefits mediated the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing intentions. Study 3 examined the moderating role of perceived organisational support (POS) in the management support – knowledge sharing intentions relationship. Study 2 and 3 were both quantitative studies taken from the same organisational setting but with different user groups. In Study 2, the users directly contributed their knowledge onto the system. In Study 3 (N = 45), the users shared their knowledge through an intermediary person. Study 3 further extended Study 2 by investigating knowledge sharing behaviour (N = 27) in addition to knowledge sharing intentions. Study 3 had three key findings. First, consistent with Study 2, management support was positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Second, POS was positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions and knowledge sharing behaviour. Third, POS moderated the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing behaviour. Study 4 replicated and extended the findings of the previous studies in a different organisational setting. Two separate studies were conducted in a medium-sized public sector organisation. In Study 4a (N = 295) data were collected at a single point in time. Study 4b (N = 246) extended the previous quantitative studies by examining two forms of management support for the KMS as well as collecting self-reported behavioural data (N= 130) at a second time period. Overall, the findings of these studies provided mixed support for the predictions. First, system-related management support, organisational identification, perceived individual benefit and perceived organisational benefit were directly related to employee knowledge sharing on KMS. However, contrary to prediction, POS was not found to be directly related to employee knowledge sharing across the two studies. Second, organisational identification was found to moderate the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing in Study 4a but not 4b. Third, POS moderated the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing in Study 4b, however, no such relationship was found in Study 4a. Finally, across the two studies, both perceived individual and organisational benefit were found to uniquely mediate the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing intentions. On the basis of the findings of the research programme, several conclusions were made. First, system-related support from management is an important determinant of employee knowledge sharing on KMS. Second, employees’ perception of the benefits derived from knowledge sharing has an important influence on their contributions to KMS. Third, the extent to which employees identify with the organisation influences their decision to share knowledge on KMS. Fourth, the extent to which employees perceive support from the organisation influences their decision to share knowledge on KMS.

Capturing and sharing individual and organisational knowledge is vital for organisational functioning. Knowledge management systems (KMS) are information technology systems which enable employees to electronically capture and distribute knowledge across the organisation. Because knowledge sharing is often a discretionary behaviour requiring time and energy on behalf of employees, the success of KMS largely relies on their motivation and willingness to share. KMS implemented within organisations have been largely ineffective with failure rates of 80% documented in the knowledge management literature. There is a need for further understanding of the barriers and facilitators for employee contributions to KMS. In particular, there is a dearth of empirical research examining the role of social and organisational factors in knowledge sharing on KMS. To this end, a programme of research was developed which utilised normative and social exchange perspectives to explain employee knowledge sharing on KMS. A combination of research methodologies were employed across five field-based studies. The aim of Study 1 was to identify the determinants of knowledge sharing on KMS. In Study 1, qualitative data were collected through 16 in-depth interviews with employees from a medium-sized private sector organisation. While several barriers and facilitators were identified, the most prevalent themes to emerge from the content analysis were perceived benefits and management support, highlighting the central role of social exchange and normative processes in explaining employee knowledge sharing on KMS. The results of Study 1 were used in conjunction with previous research to design the subsequent quantitative studies. Study 2 examined the mediating role of perceived benefits in the management support – knowledge sharing intentions relationship. It used a cross-sectional survey design and sampled 41 employees from a large private sector organisation. Three main findings emerged. First, management support was positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Second, perceived benefits were positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Third, perceived individual benefits mediated the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing intentions. Study 3 examined the moderating role of perceived organisational support (POS) in the management support – knowledge sharing intentions relationship. Study 2 and 3 were both quantitative studies taken from the same organisational setting but with different user groups. In Study 2, the users directly contributed their knowledge onto the system. In Study 3 (N = 45), the users shared their knowledge through an intermediary person. Study 3 further extended Study 2 by investigating knowledge sharing behaviour (N = 27) in addition to knowledge sharing intentions. Study 3 had three key findings. First, consistent with Study 2, management support was positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Second, POS was positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions and knowledge sharing behaviour. Third, POS moderated the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing behaviour. Study 4 replicated and extended the findings of the previous studies in a different organisational setting. Two separate studies were conducted in a medium-sized public sector organisation. In Study 4a (N = 295) data were collected at a single point in time. Study 4b (N = 246) extended the previous quantitative studies by examining two forms of management support for the KMS as well as collecting self-reported behavioural data (N= 130) at a second time period. Overall, the findings of these studies provided mixed support for the predictions. First, system-related management support, organisational identification, perceived individual benefit and perceived organisational benefit were directly related to employee knowledge sharing on KMS. However, contrary to prediction, POS was not found to be directly related to employee knowledge sharing across the two studies. Second, organisational identification was found to moderate the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing in Study 4a but not 4b. Third, POS moderated the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing in Study 4b, however, no such relationship was found in Study 4a. Finally, across the two studies, both perceived individual and organisational benefit were found to uniquely mediate the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing intentions. On the basis of the findings of the research programme, several conclusions were made. First, system-related support from management is an important determinant of employee knowledge sharing on KMS. Second, employees’ perception of the benefits derived from knowledge sharing has an important influence on their contributions to KMS. Third, the extent to which employees identify with the organisation influences their decision to share knowledge on KMS. Fourth, the extent to which employees perceive support from the organisation influences their decision to share knowledge on KMS.

Capturing and sharing individual and organisational knowledge is vital for organisational functioning. Knowledge management systems (KMS) are information technology systems which enable employees to electronically capture and distribute knowledge across the organisation. Because knowledge sharing is often a discretionary behaviour requiring time and energy on behalf of employees, the success of KMS largely relies on their motivation and willingness to share. KMS implemented within organisations have been largely ineffective with failure rates of 80% documented in the knowledge management literature. There is a need for further understanding of the barriers and facilitators for employee contributions to KMS. In particular, there is a dearth of empirical research examining the role of social and organisational factors in knowledge sharing on KMS. To this end, a programme of research was developed which utilised normative and social exchange perspectives to explain employee knowledge sharing on KMS. A combination of research methodologies were employed across five field-based studies. The aim of Study 1 was to identify the determinants of knowledge sharing on KMS. In Study 1, qualitative data were collected through 16 in-depth interviews with employees from a medium-sized private sector organisation. While several barriers and facilitators were identified, the most prevalent themes to emerge from the content analysis were perceived benefits and management support, highlighting the central role of social exchange and normative processes in explaining employee knowledge sharing on KMS. The results of Study 1 were used in conjunction with previous research to design the subsequent quantitative studies. Study 2 examined the mediating role of perceived benefits in the management support – knowledge sharing intentions relationship. It used a cross-sectional survey design and sampled 41 employees from a large private sector organisation. Three main findings emerged. First, management support was positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Second, perceived benefits were positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Third, perceived individual benefits mediated the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing intentions. Study 3 examined the moderating role of perceived organisational support (POS) in the management support – knowledge sharing intentions relationship. Study 2 and 3 were both quantitative studies taken from the same organisational setting but with different user groups. In Study 2, the users directly contributed their knowledge onto the system. In Study 3 (N = 45), the users shared their knowledge through an intermediary person. Study 3 further extended Study 2 by investigating knowledge sharing behaviour (N = 27) in addition to knowledge sharing intentions. Study 3 had three key findings. First, consistent with Study 2, management support was positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. Second, POS was positively related to employees’ knowledge sharing intentions and knowledge sharing behaviour. Third, POS moderated the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing behaviour. Study 4 replicated and extended the findings of the previous studies in a different organisational setting. Two separate studies were conducted in a medium-sized public sector organisation. In Study 4a (N = 295) data were collected at a single point in time. Study 4b (N = 246) extended the previous quantitative studies by examining two forms of management support for the KMS as well as collecting self-reported behavioural data (N= 130) at a second time period. Overall, the findings of these studies provided mixed support for the predictions. First, system-related management support, organisational identification, perceived individual benefit and perceived organisational benefit were directly related to employee knowledge sharing on KMS. However, contrary to prediction, POS was not found to be directly related to employee knowledge sharing across the two studies. Second, organisational identification was found to moderate the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing in Study 4a but not 4b. Third, POS moderated the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing in Study 4b, however, no such relationship was found in Study 4a. Finally, across the two studies, both perceived individual and organisational benefit were found to uniquely mediate the relationship between management support and knowledge sharing intentions. On the basis of the findings of the research programme, several conclusions were made. First, system-related support from management is an important determinant of employee knowledge sharing on KMS. Second, employees’ perception of the benefits derived from knowledge sharing has an important influence on their contributions to KMS. Third, the extent to which employees identify with the organisation influences their decision to share knowledge on KMS. Fourth, the extent to which employees perceive support from the organisation influences their decision to share knowledge on KMS.

Stack Overflow is the most popular Q&A website among software developers. As a platform for knowledge sharing and acquisition, the questions posted in Stack Over- flow usually contain a code snippet. Stack Overflow relies on users to properly tag the programming language of a question and assumes that the programming language of the snippets inside a question is the same as the tag of the question itself. In this the- sis, a classifier is proposed to predict the programming language of questions posted in Stack Overflow using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML). The classifier achieves an accuracy of 91.1% in predicting the 24 most popular programming languages by combining features from the title, body and code snippets of the question. We also propose a classifier that only uses the title and body of the question and has an accuracy of 81.1%. Finally, we propose a classifier of code snip- pets only that achieves an accuracy of 77.7%.Thus, deploying ML techniques on the combination of text and code snippets of a question provides the best performance. These results demonstrate that it is possible to identify the programming language of a snippet of only a few lines of source code. We visualize the feature space of two programming languages Java and SQL in order to identify some properties of the information inside the questions corresponding to these languages. / Graduate

It has been recognised that the oil sector in developing countries is facing challenges from a dynamic environment characterised by rapid technological change and increased demand. As innovation becomes critical to the survival of organisations, organisational context including organisational culture (OC), structure (OS) and information technology (IT) has been found to have an important influence on innovation, leading to increase social relationships among employees and flow knowledge within organisation through face to face employees interaction and information system. Social capital and knowledge sharing are recognised as the most significant resources for competitive advantage and the key to enhancing innovation. It has long been argued that social capital, a concept represented by the value embedded in the social relationships of individuals and collectives constitute strategic resources for individuals and organisations. Social networks perceived by individuals are a key issue in generating and facilitating knowledge sharing among employees to enhance innovation within organizations. It has also been shown that knowledge management and the promotion of knowledge sharing among the members of an organisation are an important part of the learning process as they help to convert the tacit knowledge embedded in individuals into explicit knowledge through interaction. Prior literature has pointed out that organisational context is one of the most important factors affecting social capital and knowledge sharing and enhanced innovation in an organisation. However, there is a lack of models linking organisational context, social capital and knowledge sharing, and innovation within oil sectors in general within developing countries, particularly Libya. Against this background, the thesis investigates the impact of organisational context on innovation. Using social capital and knowledge sharing, the integrative and comprehensive conceptual model are developed in order to reveal the direct and indirect impacts of organisational context on innovation. The model is then tested with a sample of 418 employees from two sectors; namely, public and the private. These were analysed through a IV multivariate analysis using a variance-based statistical technique known as Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. The findings of this thesis are three-fold. First, with respect to the direct effect of organisational context on innovation, the study finds that both public and private sectors’ innovation are positively affected by organisational context. Second, regarding the indirect impact of organisational context on innovation, the study confirms its indirect nature through the social capital and knowledge sharing in both sectors. Third, the results show that there are significant differences between the public and private oil sectors in terms of the effect of organisational context on social capital, knowledge sharing and innovation, product and process. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications in that the results have provided empirical evidence on the direct and indirect impact of organisational context and can serve as an indication in practice for both firm managers and policy makers who are looking to establish strategies for achieving innovation. These would benefit from expending their efforts on promoting social capital and knowledge-sharing practices among their employees.