Incentive Structures in Knowledge Management

Abstract

The role of incentives in organizational behavior has long been recognized and studied (Whyte, 1955; Hertzberg, 1959). This role becomes ever more paramount in knowledge management (KM), where users also become creators and contributors: The voluntary sharing of knowledge by individuals is a key element in the implementation and success of any knowledge-management endeavor. Having gradually recognized this, the KM community has theorized, examined, and implemented various incentive structures to promote knowledge sharing and system use in organizations. This article investigates some of these incentive structures, their underlying assumptions, as well as the issues and questions that they raise for KM theory and practice in general.