Making error free of it: the face saving in knowledge sharing practice

This qualitative study is a further investigation in the phenomenon of cognitive-behaviour gap, which is observed from a series of quantitative researches on professional Knowledge Management System (KMS). It is based on six-month phenomenological interview of preliminary and junior high school teachers who used a web-based KMS (SCTNet) to share their knowledge. This article explores the process undergone by over 40 key informants in looking for 'others' as the learning and sharing partners in a web-based KMS. A common phenomenon, remaining error free in order to save face, was demonstrated in informants' narration of this process. Interpretive analysis of this phenomenon revealed four aspects of "remaining error free to save face": (a) recognising the sacred role, (b) facing the unknown others, (c) inheriting habits, and (d) being one of the group. These aspects shed light on the phenomena of cognitive-behaviour gap in knowledge sharing practice and KMS as "information junkyard" syndrome.