Exploring Causes, Taxonomies, Mechanisms and Barriers Influencing Knowledge Transfer: Empirical Studies in NGOs

2. Literature Review

The basic concept of knowledge transfer may be compared to the well-known communication process model of Shannon and Weaver (1949), where two actors remainengaged in transferring a message, both of them educating each other. There may be noise between communications, and one should understand the other’s message, otherwise the entire communication process fails. A significant number of authors have defined knowledge transfer in different ways. For example, Davenport and Prusak (1998) have a holistic and wide-ranging view of knowledge transfer emphasising the important issues like ‘absorption’ and ‘actions’ on the basis of transferred knowledge are taken into account. They showed that knowledge transfer consists of transmission (sending or presenting knowledge to a potential recipient) and absorption by that person and group i.e. Transfer= Transmission +Absorption (and use). Motivation is one of the reasons of knowledge transfer (Jasimuddin et al., 2006; Stenmark, 2001). At the NGO-level, knowledge transfer helps in empowering the beneficiaries (Sultana and Islam, 2009; Afrin et al., 2008). The contribution of NGOs in socio-economic development is also acknowledged by many authors (Begum, 2008; Nawaz, 2011; Gauri and Galef, 2005).