How important is sharing information within an organization? Can hoarding information be detrimental? According to just about every employee survey we’ve seen, hoarding information is identified as a huge barrier to optimal productivity and morale.

Most employees are used to succeeding as a result of their performance and the knowledge on which it’s based. When job security or power is at stake (as is the case in many environments), people hoard information as a means to protect that security or power. This phenomenon can be rampant throughout an organization, at all levels. When employees hoard information, an open, information-sharing culture is nearly impossible to attain. And, because needed information doesn’t reach the right people in time to act, companies fail to meet deadlines, revenue or productivity goals; some people even lose their jobs, and others get discouraged and look for employment elsewhere.

This is where communication advocates — formal or self-ordained — can make a real difference in the success of both the company and employees. By raising awareness about the advantages of sharing information, communication advocates will help others achieve their goals (being a healthy, productive part of the company) and the company’s goal (improving the bottom line).

Here’s some food for thought for the next time you want to offer real answers to this prevalent (though often ignored) business problem:

Realize the importance of information-sharing

According to Sloan Management School’s journal, Strategy & Business, studies estimate that the value of employee know-how, patents and other forms of knowledge rose from 38 percent of corporate assets in 1982 to 80 percent in 1997. However, the studies also show that managers believe only 20 percent of the knowledge within their company is effectively used.

A focus on information and learning makes sense. Information—and how the company’s emissaries use it—is core to having a competitive advantage. A company needs to ensure that each individual’s knowledge becomes part of the corporate intelligence. One way to reinforce the importance of information-sharing is to include measures relating to it in performance objectives and evaluations.

Understand why people hoard information

While self-preservation is a major trigger for a decline in the amount and quality of information employees share, other factors might also be at play, including the probability that hoarding may be a mainstay of the corporate culture. A company will never have a truly collaborative team if leaders and managers don’t demonstrate a willingness to share information. For example, if senior managers aren’t providing employees with information about a reorganization, or managers don’t share information passed along to them from their supervisors, that sets a negative example for the entire company. And remember, nature hates a vacuum: a void in information encourages misinformation.

Exercise the advantages of information-sharing

Hoarding information is the opposite of a communication advocate’s role. Think of ways to share and demonstrate the benefits of effective information sharing. For example:

• Be a star: When employees share information, they’re indirectly showing other people how valuable they are to the company. If an employee keeps his head down and his cards close to his chest, there’s no way for colleagues and supervisors to see how the individual is adding value to the group.

Tip: Seek out and recognize employees who share information, and highlight how the company and the employee benefited.

• Know that two heads are better than one: Likewise, when an employee shares information to get others’ input, he can do his job even better, which makes him more valuable. Companies that survey managers and employees consistently find that more than half (often 75% or more) of managers surveyed felt they did not have the information they needed to make staff members as productive as possible or meet staff members’ needs for critical information. Similar percentages of employees felt they did not have the information they needed on the goals of the company, the company's business and their roles in meeting company goals to contribute in the way they were able and willing to do.

Tip: Share your tips and tools, learnings, and ideas with your co-workers, your leadership team and anyone else who would benefit from the information. Additionally, ask for and acknowledge ideas from others.

• Maintain security: People maintain power and security by sharing it — the more you make people feel good about their work and help them perform well, the more likely they’ll want you to retain your position in the company. (Heck, we re-elect officials partially based on how well we’ve done — financially, vis-à-vis quality-of-life or otherwise — during their tenure.)

Tip: Use persuasive communication and hard-core facts to reinforce that employees (including managers) must share information to help maintain or raise their position in the company.

• Expand your pool of information: Finally, you can’t learn if you don’t teach. And when you’re not learning, you’re stagnating. The authors of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, found a common thread among companies that have been effective during their long histories: a habit of smart information-sharing, and the consistent and effective communication of the culture and expectations of employees and managers.

Tip: Learn and teach. In addition to absorbing, filtering, funneling and applying information, look for ways to build other people’s awareness and understanding of the information. Incorporate your learnings into feedback you provide to your colleagues. And learn from feedback and information you receive.

Effective information-sharing benefits everyone, period. By understanding (a) that the information-hoarding phenomenon occurs, (b) why it occurs, and (c) why it’s damaging, communication advocates will be better equipped to develop programs that offer true solutions to one pervasive business problem.