The design of Knowledge Sharing (KS) systems requires an understanding of both the social and technical systems. Previous studies suggest that the failure of KS in most organizations is due to a lack of understanding of the social and human factors in the design process. The basis for KS in organizations is embedded in participants’ action and experience. I investigated the organizational perspective that partially defines an organization as a network of people and proposed that successful KS initiatives require (i) attention to communication patterns (i.e. strengths of their ties—strong and weak ties) of people working in different divisions of an organization and (ii) the development of ICT systems for supporting the network of social interactions (i.e. types of network structures such as legitimate or formal and shadow or informal). Additionally, I applied strong and weak tie theories to develop a framework for potential ICT-based initiatives aimed at addressing how ICT can be effectively used to support the network of social interactions. In doing so, I explored the interplay between organizational structure, communications networks and KS practices and argued that organizations need to design and manage legitimate or formal communication networks so that they can promote both the development and sustainability of shadow or informal communication networks.