Influence of demographic factors on knowledge sharing among researchers in selected research institutes in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Knowledge sharing is an effective means to provide information for organizational growth. The study investigated the influence of demographic factors on knowledge sharing among researchers in selected research institutes in Oyo state, Nigeria. The study adopted survey research method. Total enumeration technique was used to cover all the 440 researchers in the four selected research institutes in Ibadan, Oyo State in Nigeria. Five (5) research questions guided the study and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings of the study reveals that, there were significant relationship between knowledge sharing and gender (r=0.1; p<0.5) and rank of researcher (r=0.1; p<0.5). Knowledge sharing correlated with each of researcher demographic factors: age, gender, marital status, religion, and educational level. The study recommends that necessary encouragement by institutions should be given to the researchers to improve their knowledge sharing behavior. In addition, adequate training and re-training should be provided as well as stable Internet connectivity.

Keywords: knowledge sharing, demographic factors, research institutes, researchers