The Role of Knowledge Sharing in Providing Government and Municipal Services: A Review of the Literature

The literature review aimed to review published studies over “knowledge sharing” in government and municipal service delivery. The inclusion criteria were articles published in Arabic and English, during the period from 2009 to 2023. Various databases were searched including Google Scholar, Emerald, Science Direct, in addition to the Saudi Digital Library. The review was organized into three main axes. The first axis addressed the emergence of the term “knowledge sharing” and its associated concepts, and the results showed that this term first appeared in Arabic literature in 2000, while appeared in the English studies since 1980s. The second axis focused on the development of research related to "knowledge sharing" in the government and municipal service sectors. There are some differences between the Arabic and English in addressing the topic of knowledge sharing in terms of context and focus. English studies often focus on improving performance and services through knowledge sharing, with a focus on developed and developing countries, and highlight the importance of technology and organizational culture in facilitating this process. Arab studies, on the other hand, focus more on cultural and organizational barriers to knowledge sharing, such as work pressures and weak leadership, highlighting the use of modern technologies such as social networks to facilitate knowledge sharing among employees. Arab studies also address the local challenges in the public and private sectors in the Arab region. The third axis deals with the digital index to track all concepts relevant to the term "knowledge sharing" in databases and search engines.