Barriers and Motivators of Knowledge Sharing in a Virtual Engineering Office

According to a report by S&P Global (2020), more than 2/3 of companies worldwide shifted to a work-from-home strategy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The imposed remote form of communication renders knowledge sharing among colleagues challenging. Previous studies tackled the process of knowledge sharing but failed to assess the effect of a sudden emergency leading to remote work. To fill this gap, this paper proposes an integrated methodology to understand how the transition to a virtual work setting affects the knowledge sharing process and drivers. A survey targeting engineering companies is used to capture the work-from-home experience. The survey focuses on personal and external drivers affecting knowledge sharing intention, behavior, and outcomes. Personal drivers include motivation, enhanced personal relationships, and knowledge feedback. External drivers focus on the effectiveness of information and communication technology (ICT) in facilitating knowledge transfer. The results show that traditional factors such as enhanced personal relationships become less influential in remote work environments while ICT becomes more appealing. Incorporating these preliminary results with advanced statistical studies will enable companies to plan and implement strategies to foster knowledge sharing in different environments.