The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify factors that can constitute obstacles to information sharing between front-line managers in a public organization in situations of decision-making.

The research questions are as follows:

- What factors do front-line managers within a public organization perceive as obstacles to information sharing within the management group in situations of decision-making? 

- What constitutes these factors?

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with three front-line managers at the HR department of a Swedish public organization. The interview questions were phrased and designed according to previous research within the field of information sharing, and with the support of social capital theory.

The answers of the interviews were analyzed with the help of an analytic scheme, designed to correlate with factors identified in previous research. The results of the study showed a total of 15 different obstacles related to structure (how and when is information being shared), content (what information is being shared) and relations (who is sharing information and why is it being shared). The common characteristics that constitute these factors relate to the fact that the organization is lacking guidelines and rules for information sharing in connection with decision-making, and that the members of the management group in question lack common views on the role and function of the group itself.