Human resource practices and individual knowledge-sharing behavior – an empirical study for Taiwanese R&D professionals

Knowledge sharing attitude and behaviour in Saudi Arabian organisations: why trust matters

“…Our finding concurred with several Middle Eastern studies (e.g., Al-Bahussin and El-Garaihy, 2013;Al-Alawai et al, 2007;Migdadi, 2009) where incentives were found to drive knowledge sharing to achieve practical results. Although tangible incentives are crucial for promoting the desired behaviour, our study found that indirect rewards such as opportunities to assume leadership roles, exposure to different areas of work and a longer-term recognition in terms performance are better able to sustain the right attitude towards knowledge sharing (c.f., Liu and Liu, 2011). Through our qualitative data, we also discovered that positive knowledge sharing attitude can produce learning effects at the individual and group level if trigged by appropriate stimuli such as an attractive incentive scheme (c.f., Bartol and Srivastava, 2002).…”

“…Rewards can be direct and indirect, and serve as a motivational device in reinforcing employees' perceived self-efficacy in task performance (Liu and Liu, 2011). Rewards could also increase the level of knowledge diffusion in organisations, particularly when employees relate rewards to the value their organisations place on knowledge sharing.…”

“…However, if one feels that there is a lack of trust between the parties involved in knowledge sharing, one may choose to take a step back by doing more observation than involving in the direct 'act' of sharing (Empson, 2001). The ability to share knowledge also impinges on the extent to which knowledge is ultimately shared (Liu and Liu, 2011). When one is confronted by a lack of confidence due to social threat, one is likely to withdraw from the intrinsic intent of knowledge sharing after calculating the risks involved.…”

“…They further identified several essential factors such as manpower, time, and cost as contributing to the success of expert-group knowledge sharing. As this industry is often fuelled by keen competition among smaller and more agile players, strong leadership and management support would be required to sustain knowledge sharing as a capacity-building strategy (Liu and Liu, 2011). We next describe a preliminary framework that we have developed to frame our understanding of knowledge sharing processes in Saudi Arabia.…”

“…Second, the study posits that in contexts of complexity due to workforce diversity such as Saudi Arabia, the interplay of cognition and behaviour as associated with knowledge sharing is far more complex than meets the eye. This perspective challenges the assumption that a positive attitude could lead to a positive behaviour towards knowledge sharing (c.f., Bock et al, 2005;Liu and Liu, 2011). Third, the study illuminates trust as both a psychological and social mechanism that affects knowledge sharing processes operating at multiple levels.…”