Abstract

Studies have indicated that national culture may impact the choice of who shares knowledge with whom. This paper considers the problem of tacit knowledge sharing in multi-cultural environments and the issues that relate to trust, language, and culture that could impact on tacit knowledge sharing choices. A study was conducted in an international and multi-cultural Business School to discover if the theoretical research relating to a potential tacit and implicit knowledge sharing archetype had validity. The study which was conducted with 70 students from 28 nations speaking 24 languages, discovered that the variables that impacted who students chose to ask for indicated that the longer that students spent in the Business School; the longer they were in London and the UK; and the older they were, the less they were concerned about the nationality, ethnicity, and language of the person they asked. Additionally, testing the knowledge archetype module it was found that there were no moderating factors. This indicates that a knowledge archetype that is common to all nationalities can be developed.

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