Different motivations for knowledge sharing and hiding: The role of motivating work design

Abstract

Summary Little research to date has focused on understanding employee motivation to share and hide knowledge. Using self‐determination theory, we tested the premise that knowledge sharing and hiding might be differentially motivated and that work design characteristics might influence the motivation to share knowledge with colleagues. In a panel survey of Australian knowledge workers and in a Chinese knowledge‐intensive organization, we asked knowledge workers, using time‐lagged designs, about perceptions of work design, motivation to share knowledge, and self‐reported knowledge sharing and hiding behaviors. Results, largely replicated across both samples, indicated that cognitive job demands and job autonomy were positively related to future reports of knowledge‐sharing frequency and usefulness via autonomous motivation to share knowledge. Unexpectedly, task interdependence was positively related to the three forms of knowledge hiding (evasive and rationalized hiding, and playing dumb) via external regulation to share knowledge. Implications for the design of jobs that motivate knowledge sharing and demotivate knowledge hiding are discussed.

Sustainable Co-Creation Behavior in a Virtual Community: Antecedents and Moderating Effect of Participant’s Perception of Own Expertise

“…Expert users must perceive interactivity with service firms housed in the virtual community to participate in co-innovation activities. These results agree with those obtained by [63], according to which virtual community users with a higher level of expertise discriminate in the audience they address when they participate in the co-creation process. Their altruism moves them to perform moderate co-creation behavior: Recommendation of the service.…”

“…Such understanding can then be transformed into a favorable opinion of the products/services commercialized and better organizational reputation [60]. More frequent, faster, richer communication between user and company in the virtual community are passionately and emotionally linked to both participants [63], enhance the feeling of being engaged with the organization [61], and drive users to participate in the value co-creation process, supporting the firm by recommending its brands, products, and/or services.…”

Development and Validation of a Knowledge Management Questionnaire for Hospitals and Other Healthcare Organizations

“…The implementation of knowledge management can be thought of in two different ways [70,71]. The first is that there is a possibility that knowledge management to increase the autonomy of the medical staff by enhancing knowledge access.…”

The Enactment of Knowledge Sharing: The Roles of Psychological Availability and Team Psychological Safety Climate

“…Consequently, coaching behavior could serve as an incentive to motivate employees to perform proactive and voluntary behavior (e.g., knowledge sharing). Researchers have noted that motivation is a crucial antecedent to knowledge sharing (Gagné, 2009;Gagné et al, 2019). For example, Gagné et al (2019) demonstrated that autonomous motivation (i.e., "reason to" motivation) is positively related to knowledge sharing.…”

“…Researchers have noted that motivation is a crucial antecedent to knowledge sharing (Gagné, 2009;Gagné et al, 2019). For example, Gagné et al (2019) demonstrated that autonomous motivation (i.e., "reason to" motivation) is positively related to knowledge sharing. Accordingly, we propose the following hypothesis:…”