Knowledge Sharing as a Culture among Malaysian Online Social ...

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 50 (2012) 1043 – 1050

AcE-Bs 2012 Bangkok ASEAN Conference on Environment-Behavior Studies, Bangkok, Thailand, 16-18 July 2012

Knowledge Sharing as a Culture among Malaysian Online Social Networking Users Noorriati Dina* and Shireen Haronb a

b

Faculty of Business and Management, UiTM, 40000 Shah Alam MALAYSIA Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, UiTM, 40000 Shah Alam MALAYSIA

Abstract This paper is to explore how culture plays a role in knowledge sharing within the social interaction context based on virtual internet platform of online social networking. As to find answers to this study, the questions posted were related to the hours spend, language used, types of knowledge sharing, and the interaction pattern. The respondents’ feedback responses will be analyzed through the content analysis of the qualitative method. Study findings showed online social networking culture is related to knowledge sharing as a way of life, and the findings of this study can be a platform for future research on the capabilities and benefits of online social networking. This research gives an insight on how Malaysians share knowledge and benefits that they obtained through online social networking. 2012Published Published Elsevier Selection and peer-review under responsibility of thefor Centre for Environment©©2012 by by Elsevier Ltd.Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Centre EnvironmentBehaviour Studies (cE-Bs), of Faculty Architecture, Planning & Surveying, UniversitiUniversiti Teknologi MARA, MARA, MalaysiaMalaysia Behavior StudiesFaculty (cE-Bs), of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Teknologi Keywords: Social interaction; culture; way of life; social networking

1. Introduction Knowledge sharing is an important activity that enhanced an individual capability to retrieve new data and resources for the purpose of learning, problem solving, and self- improvement. The development of information communication technology (ICT) plays an essential role in the creation of knowledge sharing activity as it provides a platform for people to do activities such as posting questions and answers, discussions, messaging, story-telling as well as sharing experiences. It allows rapid communication and interaction among people as the distance barriers have been minimized. The internet technology of the

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 60332585117 E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Centre for Environment- Behaviour Studies (cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.08.104

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Noorriati Din and Shireen Haron / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 50 (2012) 1043 – 1050

‘World Wide Web” makes it possible to give a new dimension on how people communicate with one another. Web-based communication slowly replace the traditional face-to-face communication even more since the invention of telephone many decades ago as people tend to meet virtually. One such online software application is the online social networking. This contemporary social context has rendered virtual social phenomenon and become the craze of people all over the world. Generally speaking, this could mean that knowledge sharing escalation is even more. In this context, there are many statements that say ‘knowledge is power’. In 2004, Liao et al stated that knowledge sharing may be a mechanism to stimulate and support the activity of knowledge sharing. This is an important activity for organizational development. There is a lot of studies on the area of knowledge is power. These studies have drawn out interest from researchers, political scientists, philosophers, bureaucrats, and academician (Hass, 1990). With regard to this, socialization of knowledge culture existed in the era before then. In the case of the new technology such as online social networking, it gives impacts to knowledge sharing through online interaction. It draws many advantages from its usage which explains the huge access to its application globally. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore how culture plays an important role in knowledge sharing in the social learning context using online social networking. In addition the paper will explore the type of knowledge Malaysian share and the type of benefits that they obtain through this activity. There is evidence that online social networking already has significant impact on communication and interaction on people. The methodology of this study is qualitative, where the responses of the respondents will be analyzed in depth. The respondents for this study are Malaysian face book users. 2. Literature review There is much research on the area of knowledge management, culture and online social networking. In the area of knowledge management, the basic understanding here is, knowledge can be shared (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). The creation of online social networking in many ways has contributed to knowing sharing phenomena. It is one of the technology tools which are viewed as an enabler of knowledge sharing. Online social networking allows connection and interaction, however there are times when motivating people to share their knowledge is not possible (Sharinaz, 2010). Online social networking can facilitate valuable connections (Kriescher, 2009). This is in line with the definition of online social networking which refers to the online space that allows individuals to identify themselves, to refine their social networks and allow communication and interaction with the virtual community (Cain, 2008). In fact, there are various definitions given to online social networking besides Cain, 2008, where Laudon and Traver (2008) refer online social networking as an online area where people with common ties can interact with one another. While Miller (2007) defines that online social networking sites are “free online services that facilitate communication through an interactive network that includes one or more of the following: user profiles, photos, groups, email, blogs, surveys, chat room, wikis, social bookmarking, document management, instant messaging music and other media”. Therefore, the definition can be construed that online social networking is an alternative place for people to get connected to replace physical meeting where information can be voluntarily shared. There are many benefits of online social networking. Its usage will generate the huge access to its application globally (comScore, 2007). In addition, the future of the internet indicates that the social benefits of internet use will far outweigh the negatives over the next decade (Anderson and Rainie, 2010). For the business world, Kriescher (2009) outline three main benefits which include: x Real World functionality where the principle is the more users, the better the odds for productive connections. x Widespread Idea Exchange, social network allow people to choose what they want to read, use and discuss.


x Recruitment and hiring. Many law firms are using the online social networking sites for staff recruitment. In this paper, culture is defined by Bezweek and Egbu (2010) as the shared patterns of behaviors and interaction, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. The concept of online social networking is a cultural paradigm shift. Morse (2003) says that human beings are naturally born to be social creatures. They love to socialized, they love to develop and maintain complex social network of friends, family and acquaintances through various means of communication and technologies. Goodfellow and Lamy (2009) outline four major areas of inquiry associated with cultural contacts which include (1) education beyond culture and borders (2) computer-mediated interaction by marginalized people or group (3) the evolution of new types of knowledge production, and (4) the development of social networking events and their usage for teaching and learning. Dahlia (2008) noted that the culture values of Malaysian among them were honesty, knowledgeable and trustworthiness. This refers to the fact that information and knowledge sharing were based on values that are crucial to knowledge development. On the other hand, culture which surrounds us is deep seated and pervasive that it is accepted as our way of life. On that note, as online social networking according to many researchers (Shu and Chuang, 2011) stated that online social networking has affected the daily life of today’s society. A study by Grasmuck, Martin and Zhao (2009) found that students from African countries, Americans, Indian and Latinos demonstrate a strong hold on culture than the Caucasian and Vietnamese students. Adamic, Buyukkokten, and Adar's (2003) researched on a specialized online social networking site. Their findings showed that online social networking users usually create online network and connections with users with similar profile, characteristics and interests. Therefore, the evidence showed that friends of friends that belong to the social network will likely create new online relationship and friendship. Nielsenwire (2010) reported that the global participants spend approximately two hours or more in a month on social networking activities in 2009. According to the Nielsen Company, the average time a user spends on social networking activities is 5 hours and 27 minutes. Italy, Australia and United States recorded 6 hours per person in a month. Japan recorded an average 2 hours and 37 minutes the average time the Japanese spend on social networking. As for the usage of face book, Alexa (2012) reported that the time spent in face book activities is about 2 minutes, with 5 seconds spent viewing each page. Facebook is an online social network that is developed for computer-facilitated discussions about shared ideas or common interests (Kriescher, 2009). Therefore, it can be classified as one of the online communication formats which allows individual to interact with another individual. It provides a platform which enable people to interact in ways that reflect a real world interaction. Online social networking users statistics stated that face book which came into existence since 1997 is the second most accepted and generally most visited in the world (Alexa, 2012) and 12 million users are from Malaysia (Tawie, 2011). This has positioned face book as the number one social media website (Tawie, 2012, Alexa, 2012) in Malaysia. With regard to that, face book is the online social networking application chosen for this study as it is a popular communication platform to share digital content and socialize (Bonhard, Sasse, and Harries, 2007). Research done on face book users with the facilities of online social networking showed that it provides the users an avenue for them to interact between them more easily daily as it provides option to connect with people ( Shu and Chuang, 2011) at anytime and anywhere. Its impact and benefit is persistent with many social, economic and education activities. Thus, the online social network has increasingly become an online social culture event (Pookulangara and Koesler, 2011). This posits that online social networking with its beneficial features that provide social utility such as social interaction activities suited with the definition of culture as mentioned in the above paragraph as shared pattern behavior.

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In detail, the study aims to answer these research questions, which are: x Does culture play an important role in knowledge sharing? x What are the benefits of online social networking among the Malaysian face book users? 3. Statement of problem In September 2010 facebakers.com reported that there are 4.3 million active male Facebook users and 3.9 million female Facebook users. The Star Online (2010) stated that most Malaysian Facebook users spend 9 hours per day on the Facebook. This is very alarming situation, and research must be done to find out as to what extent this is true and explore reasons Malaysian’s use the Facebook. In addition, literature shows that there is a limited research on the issue of culture and knowledge sharing in Malaysia (Shaari, 2004) and very few studies were conducted on the behaviours of Malaysian Facebook users. This will be the initial study before embarking to a quantitative methodology. 4. Methodology This study adopted the qualitative methodology. Data was derived through posting of questions in the face book. Responses from the face book users were analyzed. The questions were tagged to face book users, chosen randomly. Since this study is applying qualitative approach the questions are worded in a way to include more stem (Junco, 2012) to get inferences of face book usage. Questions that were posted include: x How many hours spend on the face book (per day, per hour) x What are the benefits that you gain from the face book interaction? x How do you share knowledge on the FB? x What type of knowledge that you share? x What type of language used in the face book? The profile of the respondent are describe here. The respondents were active face book users and linked to the researchers’ face book platform. They are Malaysian, having similar culture in terms of traditional social norms and values; they speak the same native language, and reside in Malaysia. Most of the respondents are females and more than three quarter of them are working adults. 5. Analysis of findings 5.1. Benefits of online social networking From the 52 users that were tagged with the questions, only 25 responses were obtained. These are some of the responses. Respondent SH says:” I have a few benefits that I want to share including finding long lost friend, updating information…” NMN says that “meeting old friends again, sharing religious information, sharing travel information and to fill time”. YR says “...through the fb I am able to interact with students and friends and sharing information from fb friends”. NKA says that “ we can receive joy, motivation, and pleasure from meeting new and exciting people , developing real lasting relationships, sharing news, sharing information and sharing knowledge on important events like health talks and conferences, learning more about each other, about behaviors – the list goes on and on.”


HW also gave her opinion which is ..” the main benefits include the interaction with friends, sharing information, sharing ideas and the best benefit is to get connected with long lost friends”. ZN shared his opinion which is “...to interact with family members, another benefit is for business purposes such as selling items in the fb, and getting in touch with the community as well as leaders in the society.”. From the interaction analysis can be derived that the benefits of OSN that was stated were: x Finding long lost friends x Knowledge sharing x Interaction with friends and family x Meeting new people x Business purposes Finding long lost friends is the benefit that seems to be agreed by most respondents in the face book. Some users were able to contact friends that they have not met for more than 20 years. Some respondents agree that they are able to get connected to long lost friends overseas and this experience brought a lot of joy and motivation to many of the users. Knowledge sharing is the second benefit where all respondents agree that knowledge sharing is done spontaneously. At any time a question on an issue can be typed into the face book and many will response to the question. The respondents also stated that these knowledge sharing is only limited to general knowledge and not issues that are sensitive to the public. The respondents stated that they are at ease to share knowledge on health, food, travel, latest book issues, geography, history or sciences. The cultures among Malaysians are always to take care of the feelings of others. The responses of the users showed that this is indeed so even in the online social networking platform. Interaction with friends, family members and meeting new people are also the benefits that the respondents get went they do social networking. Communication and interaction between family members, and long lost cousins and uncles is definitely a plus point. This benefit closes the gap of communication between family members and information among them easily be updated from time to time.Business purposes are another benefit that was stated by the respondents. Announcements can be made, items and collectibles can be auctioned and also items such as clothes, cloths, food, books, teas, coffees and etcetera can be sold in the face book. It is felt that through the online social networking, businesses can expand and develop faster than the conventional way of selling. 5.2. Hours spend on the face book The 23 responses from the face book, says that they spend less than 1 hour per day, and 4 hours per week.Therefore, Malaysian face book users don’t spend much time on online social networking. This showed us one interesting pattern which relate to the characteristic of the respondents who were mostly females of working adults. The time spend is low because they able to gauge between time of their working time, family time and time for face book which is considered as their free time activity. This probably adds another level of insight among face book users. 5.3. Knowledge sharing and culture There were only 20 responses from this question. Most of the responses stated that there are some knowledge can be shared and some knowledge cannot be shared. Some of the respondents feel that knowledge sharing virtually among the virtual community is a good habit. Knowledge sharing culture is viewed by most respondents as a variable that have to be seriously taken in consideration when people are interacting in the face book.

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According to respondent “H”, cultural difference is a barrier especially when you have users of different background. Therefore, the responses in this research stated that it is important to not raise “sensitive issues” or make statements that can cause discontent to others. “..I am extra careful with what I say or post on the fb,.. because I feel that many people can read my statements..At times I tend to forget that I am not interacting with one or two people.. “ According to respondent “S”, there are certain values in the Malaysian culture such as honesty, knowledgeable and trustworthiness becomes a barrier when sharing knowledge on the face book. Issues of concern include: “Can I trust the knowledge that I receive through the fb... is this statement true? questions like that always keep coming into my mind”.. This in line with the findings of Goman (2002) that people are reluctant to share knowledge for several reasons. Among the reasons a fraction of the community that believe that when you have knowledge , you are more powerful than the person next to you. Therefore knowledge is not being shared because of that belief. Shahrinaz (2010) stated that people are reluctant to share knowledge with reasons they are unable to trust the people in their social network circles. It is difficult to predict the reaction, attitude and perceptions of the fb users. In addition there are reported problems and cases on the ethics of the users According to respondent SH, “It depends on knowledge that I want to share...I am at ease to share knowledge on things related to general well being such as sharing recipes or herbal remedies… I feel that I am quite reserved in sharing my opinions on politics and I would not want to make sensitive comments or negative statements on others. I guess in our Malaysian culture we try to take care of the other persons feelings, we are not so open...” The respondent YR says that ...” it depends on what kind of knowledge and experience. I believe that not everything can be shared in the fb...” Respondent Sue also says that ...” I am ok in sharing knowledge, but a bit reserved in sharing experiences especially personal ones”. Respondent K says... “What worries me is our society knowledgeable enough to filter the knowledge that is received?” 5.4. Language Language is another salient issue that can motivate people to interact with one another. It can be associated with the lingua franca. In general, people having the same lingua franca have a strong tie between them and people with having the shared language seemed to interact more frequently and are at ease. A study on an international organization environment, staff with the same language can create a harmonious working environment, it reduces communication breakdown (Harzing, 2008). From the feedback received it showed that most of the respondents feel comfortable to interact in both languages. This is because most Malaysians are bilingual. This may due to Malaysian educational system which placed English language as a second language. Among the feedback that shows acceptance of both languages include: Respondent SH said.. “Does not matter, communicating in both language is okay.” Respondent HJ said... “I use both languages, depending on the person I interact with...” While; ZN and SA said “...both language”. AY said “Malaysian language, I am patriotic” TA said “you get more response with your own language”.


6. Conclusion The findings of this study relied on the responses given by the Facebook users through the Facebook platform belonging to the researcher. Therefore the researchers acknowledge the fact that the findings of this study may not be generalized in other settings. However, the findings and discussion managed to shed some light on how culture play an important role in knowledge sharing and what are the benefits of online social networking among the Malaysian Facebook users. In answering the first research question, the dominant cultural values that surface in this research are the issue of trust, the importance of knowledge sharing and avoiding sensitive issues shaped the respondents views on culture and knowledge. Malaysians are known to be cared about one’s feeling. From the analysis it is shown that they tend to share anything that is common or having compatible interest but however still very reserved on issues that touch on personal or sensitive issues. The Star Online (2010) stated that most Malaysians spend an average of 9 hours on the Facebook, but this study shows that the respondents spend between 1 to 4 hours per week on the Facebook. This contradicts with the star online report. In addition, this study showed evidence of the benefits among the Malaysians online social networking users which are: x Finding long lost friends x Knowledge sharing x Interaction with friends and family x Meeting new people x Business purposes The findings from this study is useful for researchers and academics to evaluate the benefits of online social networking and further study the Malaysian facebook users’ views and perceptions on culture and knowledge sharing in the facebook platform. Besides providing a better understanding, the findings could serve as the basis for further study in depth in using the facebook as a virtual tool for knowledge sharing, teaching and learning. Therefore, if online social networking is used in a more meaningful ways it will be here to stay as a means for future generation to interact, and learn be it here in Malaysia or around the world and this is already taking placed. Reference Adamic, L. A., Buyukkokten, O., & Adar, E. (2003). A social network caught in the web. First Monday, 8(6). Alexa, (2012). Retrieved date 30/3/2012 from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/facebook.com Anderson, J.Q. & Rainie, L.( 2010). The future of social relations. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Washington. D.C. Bezweek, S. & Egbu, C. (2010). Impact of Information Technology in Facilitating Communication and Collaboration in Libyan Public Sector Organisations. Retrived from http://cibworld.xs4all.nl/dl/publications/w078_pub361.pdf#page=157. May 2012. Bonhard, P., Sasse, M.A. & Harries, C. (2007). “The Devil You Knowns Best”- How Online Recommendations can Benefits from Social Networking. Preceedings of HCI 2007. Cain, J. (2008). Online social networking issues within academia and pharmacy education. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 72(1). comScore. (2007). Social Networking Goes Global. Retrieved from http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2007/07/Social_Networking_Goes_Global. May 2012. Dahlia, Z. (2008). Cultural dimension among Malaysian employees. International Journal of Economics and Management 2 (2) 409 – 426. Facebakers.com. (2012). Facebook statistics by country. Retrieved from http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/malaysia. June 2012. Goodfellow R. and Lamy, M. (2009). Learning Cultures in Online Education. New York: Continuum Studies in Education.

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