A Theory of Organizational Information Culture

This chapter presents an integrated theory of information, knowledge management systems, and culture in organizations. The knowledge-based theory of the firm suggests that knowledge is the organizational asset that enables sustainable competitive advantage in hypercompetitive markets. Since 2000, systems to manage knowledge in organizations, regardless of the system label—intranets, organizational social media, knowledge management systems and more—have become important aspects to most organizations’ information systems strategy. Systems designed to facilitate knowledge management are intended to facilitate the quality, creation, storage, distribution and use of knowledge in organizations. However, such systems are often seen to clash with corporate culture and, as a result, have limited positive benefits. This chapter bridges the literature on information, culture, and knowledge sharing to develop a theoretical framework for assessing those aspects of organizational culture that are likely to be the source of implementation challenges for systems intended to facilitate knowledge processes. In so doing, the chapter associates various organizational subunit cultures with different information cultures, and presents a series of propositions concerning the relationships among individual, organizational, and information cultures.