Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations as Mediator of Big Five Personality and Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the interrelationships among various interpersonal psychological factors to explain their effect on knowledge sharing behaviors at workplace. A sample of 450 employees was drawn from knowledge based industries. To tap the information regarding performance on knowledge sharing, Big Five personality, and motivation, Knowledge Sharing Behavior (KSB) scale by Yi (2009)62, Big Five personality traits scale by Gosling et. al. (2003)27, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation scale by Lin (2007)40, were used. ‘Partial Least Square’ technique of ‘Structural Equation Modeling’ was applied using ‘SmartPLS 2.0.M3’ to understand the proposed relationships. Findings show the prominence of conscientiousness among ‘Big Five personality traits’ to explain knowledge sharing behaviors at workplace (Total Effect of ‘conscientiousness’ on ‘knowledge sharing’ being 0.5246 significant at p<0.01). ‘Intrinsic motivation’ is found to be a better predictor of ‘knowledge sharing’ than the ‘extrinsic motivation’ (Total Effect of ‘intrinsic motivation’ on ‘knowledge sharing’ being 0.3195, while that of ‘extrinsic motivation’ on ‘knowledge sharing’ being 0.1274, both significant at p<0.01). Both ‘extrinsic’ and ‘intrinsic motivation’ were found to mediate the relation between certain ‘personality traits’ and ‘knowledge sharing’. Although the paper has certain limitations, nevertheless, this is the first study to consider the relationship between ‘personality’, ‘motivation’ and ‘knowledge sharing’ in a single study and making us understand the interacting and mediating role of ‘motivation’ to explain ‘knowledge sharing’.