An evaluation of the role and contribution of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Knowledge communication and sharing processes: a case study of selected organizations in Kenya

Abstract

The topic of the study was to evaluate the role and contribution of information communication technology (lCT) in knowledge communication and sharing in selected organizations in Kenya. Twenty two organizations were selected to participate in the study over a period of nine months involving more than 100 respondents and nine key informants. The specific objectives were; 1) to establish the kind of information communication technology infrastructural tools available in selected organizations; 2) to establish the level of training, acceptance and use of information communication technology in these organizations; and, 3) to assess how the information communication technology infrastructural tools combine with the training, acceptance and use of information communication technology to affect knowledge communication and sharing in these organizations. In the.general objective the study established that ICT plays a central role in knowledge communication and sharing in the selected organizations. For objective one, the findings show that the selected organizations have well established ICT infrastructural tools for knowledge sharing purposes. In relation to objective two, the findings indicate that majority of the workers are highly trained in different areas of ICT use and that their level of acceptance in ICT use was high. Findings on objective three indicate that the ICT infrastructural tools work in combination with training, acceptance and use of ICT to positively affect knowledge communication and sharing in the selected organizations. In objective four, the study established that the organizational structures in the selected organizations were formal top-down structures that did not encourage an open culture of knowledge communication and sharing. The general conclusion of the study is that ICT have a positive role and contribution to knowledge communication and sharing in the selected Kenyan organizations. However, the study also established that social and human factors were intertwined with ICT factors in knowledge sharing processes and that these social and human factors were contributing to the knowledge communication and sharing processes as much as the ICT factors.