The success of knowledge management within an organization depends on a variety of factors. One of these is creating a supportive, encouraging organizational culture in which sharing knowledge is encouraged. In the Western paradigm, however, sharing is not instilled form childhood. On the contrary, competition and individual effort have been the building blocks of the Western business paradigm for centuries. With the increasing implementation of equal opportunity paradigms, however, it has become necessary to accept and implement more than one cultural paradigm in knowledge management. This can be problematic for the effective use and sharing of knowledge within a company, as the case study below will show.

             The case concerns an American cosmetics company, with a 1:5 ration of Chinese:White employees. While the cultural relations are fairly amicable, the two cultural groups seldom mix on a social level, with the Chinese employees generally associating only with their own cultural group, as do the white employees. When information needs to be shared, this is done fairly easily, although the language barrier occasionally becomes a problem. This is then resolved with the help of the Chinese and white managers, who started the company together.

             A specific problem arose when a new marketing employee was brought into the company. She was the replacement for a white employee who was fired for dishonest conduct. The new Chinese employee was a promising student emerging directly from a reputable Chinese school. A problem was created for especially the white employees, who felt that the new employee was favored because of her culture rather than her expertise. Furthermore the language barrier was a particular problem for this employee, as her English skills were minimal. The managers did not take the time to explain to employees the exact reasons for either letting the previous employee - who was well-like within her culture - go or for appointing the new employee.