Abstract
In a knowledge economy, knowledge, the way it is shared and created and the way these actions are managed could lead to either a competitive advantage and the organisation can flourish or be the demise of the organisation irrespective whether it is predominantly knowledge driven or manufacturing driven (Baumard, 1999; Malone, 2003; Nonaka, 1994). Since knowledge (tacit and explicit) resides in the minds of the people and some of it can be subsequently codified and become 'common to all knowledge', then managing people's knowledge becomes a challenge to the organisation (Geisler, 2008; Roberts, 1998; Walczak, 2005). The situation at a University is not very much different but creation of new knowledge is not a voluntary act, nor is transferring of knowledge which is one of its main tasks. However, when it comes to sharing of knowledge among the academics the degree of sharing may vary and it can be voluntary or imposed on if necessary; for example when a group of academics collaborate on a task. If it is true that voluntary sharing of knowledge (mostly tacit) can lead to a competitive advantage, here being the creation of a world class University then an investigation into the knowledge sharing is imperative. This study is an attempt to determine the degree of knowledge sharing in a formal (or informal) Community of Practice (CoP) at a university as well as identification of factors that promote or impede knowledge sharing among the academics.