1. Qassim Al-Rammahi
University of Jyväskylä
Master’s Programme in Mobile Technology and Business

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Introduction
Motivation
Research Questions
Research Purposes
Methodology and Scope
Empirical Studies
Hypotheses
Limitations of Research
Schedule for Completing the Thesis
List of References

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Trust play great role on success of sharing and
exchanging knowledge among members of
organization. Trust considered to be an
essential attribute in organizational culture for
co-workers to share knowledge Politis (2003) .
Social ties among employees have great role on
building trust processes to transfer complex
and tacit knowledge (Hansen, 1999) .

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Creating, sharing and distributing knowledge play
big role on speeding up and succeeding open
innovation.
Trust is reflected through individuals’ behavior,
culture, values and personal relationship in
organization and then it will affect the process and
result of knowledge sharing ( Zand ,1972; Hart &
Saunders, 1997; Butler, 1999;).
There is great connection between processes of
creating and sharing knowledge with high level of
trust and mutual respect among employees of an
organization (Nahapiet and Ghoshal ,1998)

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With the impact of globalization, companies
are depending on multinational team members
to create and share knowledge.
Great role of knowledge in organization to
survive among competitors in last decade.
Knowledge is the most valuable asset of most
productive resources for organizations ( Grant,
2002) .

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Trust is reflected through individuals’
behavior, culture, values and personal
relationship in organization and then it will
affect the process and result of knowledge
sharing.
As knowledge facilitates development of the
organization, trust can facilitate complexity of
sharing knowledge among organization
members and groups.

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What is the role of trust in transferring and
exchanging knowledge within members of
multicultural background organization?
What factors increase trust among
multicultural employees when sharing and
exchanging knowledge ?

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What is the influence of the organizational
culture on process of knowledge sharing?
How trust effect workers’ knowledge-sharing
behaviors in multicultural organization?

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Qualitative method is used in this research to
establish better understanding of trust among
multinational people on how to communicate,
to create and to share knowledge within one
organization.
This study starts with investigating and
analyzing some theories concerning trust and
knowledge management.
Using semi structured interviews to collect
some data for qualitative information case
studies.

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These interviews are about some IBM companies
between Nordic countries and Middle East
countries. I chose Finland as typical example of
Nordic countries, while Kuwait and UAE for
Middle East countries to represent great cultural
differences.
According to Yin (2003) when using case studies,
the goals are to explain general explanations that
to fit these cases, later we compare these cases to
find gabs and similarities.

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To clarify the role and the importance of trust in
different perspective when cross-cultural team
members and groups are sharing and disributing
knowledge for the purpose of open innovation.
To facilitate trust among individuals and groups
when sharing and exchanging knowledge in
multicultural organization.
To give better understanding of knowledge
management when dealing with multicultural
teams.

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This study is supported by empirical studies
using semi constructed interviews with IBM in
Nordic countries and Middle East countries.
Interviews done in:
Kuwait, Khorafi Business Machines W.L.L.
(Mr. Piero Corsini – General Manager)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES , Gulf Business
Machines . (Mr. Cesare Cardone,Chief
Executive Officer).
Oy IBM Finland Ab (…..still in process)

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Trust between team members will increase
knowledge sharing.
Interpersonal trust of others in the team will be
positively associated with the amount of
knowledge sharing within the team and that
knowledge will be positively associated with
team effectiveness.
Different knowledge requires different level of
trust.

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There is a connection between interpersonal
trust and number of team members
behaviours.
Including organizational citizenship
behaviours, trust plays huge role on the desire
for future interactions between team members,
team performance and information sharing.
Richer media can increase level of trust and
performance among team member over
geographical dispersed virtual team.

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It is not dealing with knowledge itself, but
about dynamic and nature of knowledge
management among employees of
multinational organization.
This study starts with investigating some
theories concerning creating and sharing
knowledge and moving to collect some
qualitative information from case studies using
semi structured interviews.

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Semi constructed interviews of IBM companies
(in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and in
Finland) are selected to represent cultural point
of view in Middle East Countries and in Nordic
Countries.

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80% of literature review part is finalized, now
collecting data of the enterviews is in progress.
Planning to finalize the thesis in summer (April
-June 2014)

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Politis,J.(2003),‘‘Theconnectionbetweentrustandknowledgemanagement:what are its
implications for team performance’’,Journal of Knowledge Management,Vol.7No.5,pp.55-66.
Hansen, M.T. (1999). “The search-transfer problem: The role of weak ties in sharing
knowledge across organization subunits”. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44, 82-111.
Alexei V. Matveev and Paul E. Nelson, “Cross Cultural Communication Competence and
Multicultural Team Performance Perceptions of American and Russian Managers”,
International Journal of Cross Cultural Management2004 Vol 4(2): 253–270
Claude-Hélène Mayer, 2011 “The Meaning of Sense of Coherence in Transcultural
Management: A Salutogenic Perspective on Interactions in a Selected South African
Business Organisation”, Waxmann Verlag GmbH
Juan C. Rivera-Vazquez, Lillian V. Ortiz-Fournier and Felix Rogelio Flores, “Overcoming
cultural barriers for innovation and knowledge sharing”, JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT,VOL. 13 NO. 5 2009.
Butler, J.J.K. (1999) “Trust expectations, information sharing, climate of trust, and
negotiation effectiveness and efficiency”. Group and Organization Management, 24, 217–
238.
Sai Ho Kwok;Gao, Sheng (2006), “ATTITUDE TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE SHARING
BEHAVIOR” The Journal of Computer Information Systems; Winter 2005/2006; 46, 2;
ProQuest Central pg. 45
Grant, R. M. (2002). The knowledge-based view of the firm. In N. B. Chun Wei Choo (Ed.),
“The strategic management of intellectual capital and organizational knowledge “(pp. 133148). New York: Oxford University Press