Motivating Employees to Share their Failures in Knowledge Management Systems: Anonymity and Culture

This study investigates the effect of the type of information to be disclosed and the possibility of sharing the information anonymously on the intention to share information. Data for the experiment were collected in two individualist (UK and US) and two collectivist (Chile and Mexico) countries to evaluate the influence of culture on information sharing patterns. The study finds that although anonymity has no influence on the intention to share successes, the intention to share failures increases when the information is shared anonymously. Further, participants from collectivist (versus individualist) cultures are more likely to share failures. However, the influence of anonymity and culture is limited. Failures are still shared at lower levels than successes, even in anonymous conditions and in collectivist cultures.