ABSTRACT

Knowledge sharing (KS) is a challenge for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) given its high turnover and the informal nature of KS. We examine KS in Portuguese NGOs by adopting the three levels of Schein’s theory of organisational culture: artefacts, norms/values, and basic assumptions. We test the influence of the three variables we propose to be proxies of the three levels: internal communication, ethical climate, and altruism. This study’s objective is to a) ascertain whether the different levels are correlated with each other, and b) to understand the effects of organisational variables on KS. We found evidence to sustain the correlation among the three levels showing that Schein’s theory is supported in the NGO’s. Our findings confirm that an ethical climate and altruism have a positive impact on KS. However, the analysis fails to support the influence of internal communication. Altogether, we conclude that organisational culture positively impacts KS at NGOs.

摘要

鉴于知识共享（KS）的高周转率和非正式性质，对非政府组织（NGO）来说是一个挑战。我们采用沙因的组织文化理论的三个层次来研究葡萄牙非政府组织中的知识共享：人工制品、规范/价值观和基本假设。我们测试了我们建议作为三个层面代理的三个变量的影响：内部沟通、道德氛围和利他主义。本研究的目的是 a) 确定不同级别是否相互相关，b) 了解组织变量对 KS 的影响。我们发现了维持三个层次之间相关性的证据，表明沙因的理论得到了非政府组织的支持。我们的研究结果证实，道德氛围和利他主义对 KS 有积极影响。然而，该分析未能支持内部沟通的影响。总而言之，我们得出的结论是，组织文化对非政府组织的知识共享产生积极影响。