Transformation of Knowledge Sharing Motivations in the Presence of Social Media

Previous studies have revealed that motivating people to share knowledge is an important challenge in knowledge management (KM) in companies. Further, the recent growing use of enterprise social media (ESM) for KM creates an unprecedented exploration direction for business managers and researchers. A more transparent insight into ESM attributes and engagement between attributes and participants’ motivations can be developed by more focused studies. This study examines how certain attributes of ESM platforms can significantly enhance participants’ perceived benefits and costs to a greater extent than conventional KM systems. Results of synthesized studies reveal that individuals’ perceived benefits and costs of participation throughout ESM are influenced by three attributes of social media technology: entirety, visibility, and informality. We argue that these attributes of ESM systems can support some benefits and diminish some costs of knowledge sharing. Employees’ motivations are accordingly boosted by making participants visible, creating an environment for informal interactions, and developing integrated knowledge exchange channels.