The effects of individual motivations and social capital on employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions

• Published in: International journal of information management Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 356 - 366
• Main Authors: Hau, Yong Sauk, Kim, Byoungsoo, Lee, Heeseok, Kim, Young-Gul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2013; Elsevier; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Employees; Exact sciences and technology; Explicit knowledge; Explicit knowledge sharing intention; Individual motivation; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Information service management; Information sharing; Information system management; Knowledge management; Knowledge sharing; Library and information science. General aspects; Motivation; Rational action theory; Sciences and techniques of general use; Social capital; Social capital theory; Studies; Tacit knowledge sharing intention; Use and user studies. Information needs; Individual motivation; Social capital theory; Tacit knowledge sharing intention; Explicit knowledge sharing intention; Rational action theory; Employee; Motivation; Individual; Authorized capital; Knowledge sharing; Knowledge
• ISSN: 0268-4012; 1873-4707
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2012.10.009

► This study examines the effects of individual motivation factors and social capital on employees’ knowledge sharing intentions. ► This study classifies employee knowledge sharing intentions as either tacit or explicit. ► Organizational rewards have a negative effect on employees’ tacit knowledge sharing intentions but a positive influence on explicit ones. ► Reciprocity, enjoyment, and social capital significantly influences employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions. Due to the importance of knowledge in today's competitive world, an understanding of how to enhance employee knowledge sharing has become critical. This study develops an integrated model to understand key factors of employee knowledge sharing intentions through constructs prescribed by two established knowledge management research streams, namely, those concerning individual motivations and social capital. This study classifies employee knowledge sharing intentions as either tacit or explicit and investigates whether the level of the determinants and their influences differ between the two. The research model is tested with survey data collected from 2010 employees in multiple industries. Analysis results show that the proposed model significantly explains the variance of employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions. This finding indicates that the model's unified perspective enhances our knowledge of how to improve employee knowledge sharing. The new findings reveal that organizational rewards have a negative effect on employees’ tacit knowledge sharing intentions but a positive influence on their explicit knowledge sharing intentions. The analysis results confirm that reciprocity, enjoyment, and social capital contribute significantly to enhancing employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions. Additionally, these factors have more positive effects on tacit than on explicit knowledge intentions. The implications of the new findings are discussed.