Hazel Hall's invited paper presented at the 25th International Online Meeting, London, 4-6 December 2001. The full text article on which this presentation is based is available from Knowledge Board at http://www.knowledgeboard.com/lib/3259. The material presented here draws on early work for Hazel Hall's PhD, the full details of which are available from http://hazelhall.org/publications/phd-the-knowledge-trap-an-intranet-implementation-in-a-corporate-environment/

1. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Hazel Hall
Senior Lecturer
School of Computing
Napier University, Edinburgh
h.hall@napier.ac.uk
1

2. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Using an intranet for
the purposes of
knowledge sharing is
a “good thing”
2

3. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
This work is I’m too busy to .
The material’s I’m too busy
commercially create content. confidential. to learn how
sensitive. to submit content
Using an intranet for
My time is (Why should I
better spent the purposes of
willingly give up
generating knowledge sharing is my intellectual
revenue. a “good thing” BUT... property?)
I don’t have I share my
(My knowledge
anything of knowledge
is my power.)
value to submit. in other ways.
3

4. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Using an intranet for
the purposes of (What’s in it
knowledge sharing is
a “good thing” BUT...
for me?)
4

5. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Rewards Conditions Infrastructure
Usability
Hard Responsibilities
Articulation
Soft Status
Critical mass
Communities Boundary
objects
5

6. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Rewards
Financial rewards
Hard
Soft Career advancement/security as reward
Access to information and knowledge as reward
6

7. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Increased pay
Bonuses
Rewards Stock options
Financial rewards
Hard
Promotion
Career advancement/security as reward Future work
Soft
Learning
Access to information and knowledge as reward
Innovation
7

8. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Rewards
Financial rewards
Hard
Soft Career advancement/security as reward
Access to information and knowledge as reward
8

9. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Rewards
Hard
Enhanced reputation as reward
Soft
Personal satisfaction as reward
9

10. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Rewards
Hard
Enhanced reputation as reward Gratitude
Flattery
Soft
Recognition
Personal satisfaction as reward Cross-hierarchy alliances
Positive results of
altruism
10

11. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Rewards
Hard
Enhanced reputation as reward
Soft
Personal satisfaction as reward
11

12. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Rewards
me?” nc e
for mplia
Hard ’s in it y co
W hat porar rest
e of “ s tem lf-inte
Soft itud urage tes se ips
Att co o h
e n r om lations aking
er-p s re risk t
 ov ture s
r up urage
o
 disc
12

13. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Training & debriefings
Conditions
Mentoring & assisting
Acquire knowledge
Disseminate knowledge Responsibilities Time allocated
“Copying” permitted
Status
Senior management buy-in
Communities
Leadership by example
13

14. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Conditions
Acquire knowledge
Disseminate knowledge Responsibilities
Status
Communities
14

15. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Training & debriefings
Conditions
ve Mentoring & assisting
rati
e
Acquire knowledge
e imp
Responsibilities
Disseminate knowledge h a ng Time allocated
re c
C ultu
“Copying” permitted
Status
Senior management buy-in
Communities
Leadership by example
15

16. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Conditions
Remove management
Responsibilities levels
Relegate Status Mask status
Communities All are contributors,
experimentation is
encouraged
16

17. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Conditions
Responsibilities
Academic
research on online
interactions
Relegate Status
Doctors v nurses
Communities
17

18. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Conditions
f
Removeomanagement
rd
Responsibilities
ft r ewa
levels
o
n st s tion
a gai puta
rks ed re
Relegate Wo a
Status nc Mask status
enh
Communities All are contributors,
experimentation is
encouraged
18

19. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Shared commitment,
Conditions obligation & co-
dependence  vitality
& trust
Responsibilities
Social interaction 
clique & high risk
Status exchange
Provide for Communities Identity 
common
purpose 19

20. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Conditions
Responsibilities
Social events
Status Common language
framework
Provide for Communities Space
20

21. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
s
k tie
a
Shared commitment,
we
obligation s co-
&
Conditions
e rsu
gv
dependence  vitality
on
tr& trust
S
Responsibilities n
a tio
n
Social interactione mi 
clique & highd iss risk
Status it ed
h ib
exchange
In
” ip
a ted sh
Provide for Communities
“ cr e Identity  ber
be m
’t common me
Can on
purpose
its 21
Lim

22. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Infrastructure
Ease of use Usability
Usefulness of use is obvious Articulation
Critical mass
Boundary
objects
22

23. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Infrastructure
Ease of use Usability
Usefulness of use is obvious Articulation
Critical mass
Boundary
objects
23

24. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Infrastructure
Usability
Integration of tools with communities Articulation
Critical mass
Boundary
objects
24

25. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Infrastructure
Usability
Integration of tools with communities Articulation
Critical mass
Boundary
objects
25

26. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Infrastructure
Ease of use Usability
Usefulness of use is obvious Articulation
Integration of tools with communities Critical mass
Boundary
objects
26

27. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Infrastructure
Usability
Articulation
classification schemes
Critical mass
repositories
Boundary
spaces and people objects
27

28. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Infrastructure
Usability
Articulation
Ease of knowledge sharing classification schemes
Equal status Critical mass
Community ownership repositories
Exploitation of weak ties Boundary
Transfer from oldies to newbies spaces and people objects
28

29. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
l
ci a
is cr u Infrastructure
t
en
tm
es
d in v Usability
n an
y-i
Bu Articulation
Ease of knowledge sharing classification schemes
Equal status Critical mass
Community ownership repositories
Exploitation of weak ties Boundary
Transfer from oldies to newbies spaces and people objects
29

30. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Incentives for knowledge sharing
Rewards Conditions Infrastructure
To jump start knowledge For long-term compliance To help new members of staff
sharing
To encourage experimentation For cross-team working
To match “expectations” For “community” benefits
of personality types For distributed staff
To promote moral obligation
For wide dissemination
Move from knowledge to knowledge with appropriate
as a private good as a public good support
30

31. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Universally
applicable
model?
Photograph courtesy of Philip Greenspun 31
http://philip.greenspun.com

32. Devising intranet incentives: rewards and
conditions for knowledge exchange
Related work
Davenport, E. & Hall, H. (2001). New knowledge and micro-level online
organization: 'communities of practice' as a development framework. In R.
Sprague (Ed.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences (CD ROM). Los Alamitos: IEEE.
Davenport E. & Hall, H. (2002 in press). Organizational knowledge and
communities of practice. In B. Cronin & D, Shaw (Eds.). Annual Review of
Information Science and Technology. Medford NJ: Information Today.
Hall, H. (2001). Input-friendliness: motivating knowledge sharing across intranets.
Journal of Information Science 27(2), 139-146. [In Online 2001 conference
proceedings]
Hall, H. (2001). Social exchange for knowledge exchange. Paper presented at the
International Conference on Managing Knowledge, University of Leicester,
April 10-11 2001.
32