Characterizing the relationship between conscientiousness and knowledge sharing behavior in virtual teams: An interactionist approach

Abstract

Extensive previous work has studied individuals' knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) in a virtual environment, revealing several key factors. However, prior work focused solely on simple correlations between these factors and KSB. And relatively little attention has been assigned to the complex relationships between them. This study argued that better understanding of the complex relationships may be more important because the nature and wide scope of the determinants of KSB may yield different interaction effects. Thus, to better understand the interaction effects of contextual factors and personal factors on KSB, this study adopted a person-situation interactionist approach which proposes that conscientiousness (C), job demands of skill variety (JDSV), and knowledge sharing self-efficacy (KSSE) have joint effects on virtual team (VT) members' KSB. We empirically validated the main effects and the two-way and three-way interaction effects using data collected from 219 VT members from an information technology company. Our results showed that (1) C, JDSV, and KSSE are all positively related to KSB; (2) KSSE positively moderates the relationship between C and KSB; and (3) JDSV and KSSE jointly moderate the relationship between C and KSB. This study offers a new research perspective on knowledge sharing and integrates personality traits theories, Job Characteristics Model, Job Demands-Resources Model, and social cognitive theory into a single research model to examine the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of KSB in a virtual environment. The results of the study might direct VT mangers how to recruit members and when to redesign members' job and foster their KSSE.