*2.2.2 Organisational culture*

Given the increasing importance of knowledge management processes to strategic performance, a majority of firms make efforts to integrate knowledgesharing into their organisational culture [29]. The inclusion of knowledge-sharing as a corporate value and organisational norm allows organisations to quickly react to the changing competitive landscape, ensuring that employees and management will either possess the knowledge required or the ability to quickly acquire the knowledge required, to adapt to new competitive challenges [19]. One major influence on a firm's knowledge sharing willingness is the issue of reciprocity [29], that is, the perception that they will receive a valuable return because of the knowledge they choose to share with others (e.g., direct compensation of some kind; enhanced reputation, being given an employee award, etc.). In this way, the elements of an organisation's culture (i.e., stories, rituals, language, values, etc.) can operate as powerful mechanisms in the knowledge management process [28, 34].
