| dc.description.abstract | Knowledge generation and transfer is an essential source of firms’ sustainable competitive advantage (Osterloh et al., 2000). Field studies in diverse settings indicate that employees frequently resist sharing their knowledge with the rest of the organization (Ciborra et al., 1998). Spender and Grand (1996) noted that despite recent interest in organizationally embedded knowledge, little progress has been made in understating how and why employees refuse to share what they know. Given the importance of knowledge sharing, scholars and practitioners would be interested in identifying antecedents that enhance/hinder knowledge sharing within the organization.
Built on theory of information sharing (Constant, Kiesler, & Sproull, 1994), equity theory (Adams, 1965) and organization learning perspective (Edmondson, 1999g), this study develops a theoretical conceptual model about factors that influence employees’ propensity to share knowledge. Because of the hierarchically nested data structure (i.e., organizational context and individuals), a multilevel model was constructed to examine how organizational climate, as well as individual’s social determinants, influence employee’s propensity to share knowledge. Specifically, we examine how the nature of knowledge moderates the relationship between social determinants and knowledge sharing propensity. Results indicate that beliefs of organizational ownership of knowledge, self-interest and altruism have significant effects on employees’ knowledge sharing propensity. Self-esteem is a significant predictor for knowledge sharing propensity only when the knowledge to be shared is tacit. On the organizational level, the effect of psychological safety climate on knowledge sharing propensity is significant. Furthermore, distributive justice climate has greater impact on employee’s sharing propensity of explicit knowledge than that of tacit knowledge. In contrast, procedural justice climate is more important than distributive justice climate in predicting individual’s propensity to share tacit knowledge. To our surprise, ICT utilization did not seem to be an important determinant for knowledge share propensity. Finally, the test of moderating effects provide supports that attitude toward knowledge sharing is moderated by the nature of knowledge shared. These findings and their implications are discussed. | en_US |