Mentoring practice on behalf of knowledge sharing in the light of education

Abstract

The question of knowledge management has become a highlighted issue in the companies’ everyday life. Knowledge itself is the most important capital of organizations and acquiring, developing and preserving it means a lot of tasks and requirements for the companies. The complex activities of the knowledge management system appear with different priorities in the practice of companies, which depend on the company’s circle of activities, its organizational structure, its innovative willingness, the content of HR, leadership approach and on the organizational culture, etc. However, it is a fact that preservation and sharing of employees’ knowledge, and to find the most successful methods are the most emphasized areas of a knowledge management system in companies. On the basis of the above mentioned facts, our research was motivated by the following question: how do the employees want to share their knowledge and what features influence them? We observed whether the most traditional method, mentor practice as a corporate practice aiming knowledge sharing is widespread and what opinion the questioned people have about the method. Last year a survey was conducted by the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and its results show that a mentoring system is a well-known and often used method in companies’ practice, but its effect is debatable. Employees’ willingness to share their knowledge – independently from the used methods – is influenced by the employees’ age, attitude and corporate culture. Thus the mentoring activity as a knowledge sharing method is influenced by the above mentioned employees’ features, which determine the success of this method.