BARRIERS TO KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN GLOBAL TEAMS – THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

Organizing work in teams has become the modus operandi in multinational organizations
and team-based structures are becoming a regular occurrence in every day operation of
the organization. The purpose of this study is to run an extensive literature review of
knowledge sharing barriers in global teams. It is assumed that global teams are able to integrate
specialized and globally dispersed capabilities, to understand local needs and demands
and leverage cultural diversity. These multi-cultural teams also face a host of problems, and
to better understand the challenges and benefits of team work for global organizations, it is
vital to learn what are the potential barriers in knowledge sharing.
This paper is one of the series concerning knowledge sharing barriers. Companies increasingly
rely on global teams to foster growth and innovation, yet too often these teams are assembled
without a clear process to ensure success. Global teams represent a high stake
commitment, so it is imperative that these teams have a proven framework to promote optimal
functioning. Firms need to pay attention to potential barriers to knowledge sharing, in
order for global teams to succeed. The relevance of the barriers to knowledge sharing has
been identified and they are as such: absorptive capacity, relationship between members of
different teams, time, common framework, the excessive value attributed to experts, lack of
recognition, distance, time zone and cultural differences.

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