IMPACT OF ETHICS ON KNOWLEDGE CULTURE IN INDIA: A STUDY OF IT/ITES SECTOR

Abstract

Knowledge culture facilitates opportunities for achieving competitive advantage through better handling of information, rapid response to market dynamics and fluctuations in business environment. But in many instances, the existence of knowledge culture is seen in universe of dynamic tension because of disrespect to privacy, conflict of knowledge ownership, data theft, etc. Also, the knowledge is hoarded, suppressed, distorted, and misappropriated for self and organizational motive. Knowledge culture facilitates manipulation and misappropriation of knowledge at sourcing, acquisition, storage, and dissemination phase. Knowledge can be created, acquired, omitted, amplified, distorted and diminished. This different side pertaining in knowledge culture suggests organization to have an ethical inclination. Knowledge is an asset that grows with time and gives an edge to the companies to innovate and compete. The literature on knowledge culture predominantly discusses its positive view that it encourages knowledge creation, sharing, storage, and its future application. The utopian view or knowledge culture Nirvana fails to address unethical issues that are faced by organization which includes distortion, suppression, and misappropriation of knowledge. The ethical orientation of an organization nurtures its knowledge culture with trust, data privacy, intellectual property, and intellectual capital protection. It is noted that there is a lack of research on integrated ethical frameworks that support all KM processes, including knowledge creation, sharing, storage, and application. There are no comprehensive studies on ethical components and prevailing knowledge culture in an organization. Very little research has been done on how ethical considerations affect all knowledge management activities in IT/ITes firms. In light of this, this research aims to define the various ethical and knowledge culture elements for IT/ITes firms while keeping in mind how they are related. The specific aim of the study is to analyze the effect of ethics and related aspects existing in the organization environment on their knowledge culture in context to IT/ITes sector organizations. In the theoretical framework, there are 41 sub-constructs, including 14 items on knowledge culture and 27 items on ethics. The 27 items under Ethics are Organizational values and ethical climate (Trust, honesty, Fair behaviour, Humility, Criticism taking, and Perseverance in work); Commitment and responsibility (Responsibility, Working conscience, Commitment, Loyalty, and Foresight); Intellectual ownership and trusteeship (Secrecy, Intellectual property right, Trusteeship, and Care in authenticity); Team working morale (Council with others, Helping and empathy with others, Affability, and Self-control); PRIMES (Personality, Integration of morality, Moral ecology, and Skills & knowledge); Ethical issues (Socioeconomic issues, Technical issues, Knowledge hoarding, Manipulation & misappropriation and Property & privacy right conflict). The 14 items under Knowledge Culture are Culture for knowledge creation (creativity, motivators and rewards, openness to change, top management support), Culture for knowledge sharing (sharing information freely, working closely with others, viii developing friends at work, open communication of knowledge, knowledge sharing by experienced employees) and Culture for knowledge storage and knowledge application (Information system & expert system for knowledge storage, retrieval, & dissemination, communication & free flow of information, employee empowerment, and tolerance to honest mistakes, organizational climate for innovation). The current study utilizes a sample size of 509, the main participants for the survey-based study are the professionals at non managerial and various managerial positions working in IT/ITes organizations in India. The NASSCOM-member organisations are where the data for the current study was gathered. Because it focuses primarily on information technology and related sectors, the organisation was chosen for the present research because it is a member of NASSCOM. The descriptive research design is adopted and symbolic sample is chosen using convenience sampling. The questionnaire used as the quantitative research instrument constitutes 41 items developed on a Likert 7-point scale for collecting the interval data. A multi staged analysis was conducted on the primary data starting with descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and finally testing the hypothesis with structural equation modelling (SEM). The factor structure was confirmed using CFA, reliability and validity was checked through composite reliability (CR) and validity was established through SPSS and SEM and checking the model fit measures. This research results that Ethics prevailing in IT organizations does affect their knowledge culture. Through knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, knowledge absorption, and higher quality information that enable quick reaction to changes in the business environment, knowledge management may be employed in an organisation to create a competitive advantage. By collecting specialized knowledge and preserving essential business information, knowledge management may help boost an organization's intangible assets. Knowledge should be acquired, improved, maintained, and disseminated via ethical reasoning. Executive managers, knowledge workers, and others face ethical dilemmas and issues but with organiza tional values and an ethical climate, employee commitment and responsibility, intel lectual ownership and trusteeship, and team working morale, it is possible to develop a culture for knowledge generation, sharing, storage, and application.