KNOWLEDGE SHARING AMONG STAFF AND STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BENIN

The study examined knowledge sharing among students and among staff in the University of Benin. The objective of the study was to examine the means of knowledge sharing, factors that enhances knowledge sharing, barriers to knowledge sharing, and importance of knowledge sharing among student and among staff. The methodology adopted in the study was the survey method using simple random sampling to acquire a representative sample. The questionnaire was administered to 100 students and 100 staff of the University of Benin and analyzed using percentage and mean. The findings of the study revealed that knowledge sharing occurs among students and among staff through the social media, online discussion groups, tutorials, peer
coaching, conferences, lecturing etc, the factors that enhances knowledge sharing among students and among staff are the availability of teamwork spirit, availability of reward or incentives, flexible organization structure, trust, motivation, good leadership style, collaborative working environments etc. The barriers to knowledge sharing were lack of time, lack of knowledge sharing culture, fear of providing wrong information, rigid organizational structure, inadequate technological resources, inadequate awareness on knowledge sharing etc. Improvement in performance, increment in knowledge capacity, encouragement of collaboration etc were highlights of the importance of knowledge sharing. Conclusion drawn was that Knowledge sharing improves students and staff performance in general and as a result, the performance and standard of the academic institution is improved. Therefore, it was recommended that university of Benin should bring to students and staffs awareness the importance of knowledge sharing. There should also be provision of knowledge sharing infrastructures and less emphasis should be placed on grade as it may encourage students to view knowledge as power.