Knowledge-sharing behaviour among employees in tourism is one of the most important factors that contribute to enhancing individual and organisational innovative performance (IP). Tourism institutions focus on their employees’ IP to obtain competitive advantages, achieve operational efficiency, and improve customer service quality. IP can be defined as finding new ways to reach customers and responding to their needs and desires effectively. Knowledge management is defined as multiple processes that include the ability of institutions to take advantage of different types of knowledge and manage it to create competitive advantages for their businesses based on the communications amongst employees to share their knowledge to create or improve new/existing knowledge.
Knowledge can be classified into two types: tacit and explicit. Tacit is a personal knowledge that is difficult to formalise, document, or transfer. It is obtained through observations and face-to-face interaction and may include individuals' beliefs, values, emotions, and perceptions. It is the common form of knowledge in tourism and is a source of strategic advantages that enable institutions to be differentiated from competitors. Explicit knowledge is the form that is explicitly shared among employees or departments and may be written and circulated in the form of reports or manuals to implement the work. Tacit and explicit knowledge are two necessary and complementary types to create knowledge and generate new ideas for business development. Many factors can affect the degree of knowledge-sharing among employees, including their characteristics, willingness to share knowledge and experiences, and organisational motivations within institutions. The technological aspects and organisational culture also help succeed and develop the knowledge-sharing process.
In a study conducted by Dr. Mohamed AbouShouk and Dr. Asa’d Aburumman on knowledge-sharing and its role in developing the employees’ innovative performance in the tourism sector, the results showed that the employees, who tend and are encouraged to share their knowledge and experiences, have developed the innovative aspects of performing the tasks of their jobs. This study presented a set of important recommendations for the tourism sector to develop the innovative performance of its employees. The first recommendation category is addressed to tourism institutions' human resources managers. Those managers responsible for recruiting and appointing new employees should pay attention to employees’ attitudes and willingness to work collaboratively and adopt new ideas in their work to distinguish their performance and provide competitive services to customers. The second category of recommendation was directed to general managers. Those managers should restructure the human resources in their institutions so that jobs that require a high degree of knowledge-sharing are reconciled with the employees who have knowledge-sharing culture. They should also offer awards for employees who share their knowledge including honourary titles and financial incentives, in addition to their prior need to adopt new technologies that help employees exchange their knowledge and facilitate the process of knowledge flow and transfer among work teams.
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