Markus [58] makes several interesting observations about the use of incentives combined
with the role of senior management in promoting knowledge contributions to
knowledge repositories as well as knowledge reuse, as described here. One challenge
is to mitigate “free rider” behavior, where employees attempt to leverage the knowledge
contributions of colleagues without exerting sufficient effort of their own to
provide high-quality knowledge content for use by others [49]. While explicit reward
systems (e.g., promotions and bonuses) can enable knowledge contributions as well
as reuse, they may be insufficient in the absence of other driving forces. Employees
also share and reuse knowledge because it enhances their reputation among colleagues.
This requires, however, senior management to establish and support organizational
norms by demonstrating their commitment to KM efforts.