Knowledge Sharing: Two-Dimensional Motivation Perspective and the Role of Demographic Variables

Abstract

Knowledge Management (KM) efforts cannot be successful unless employees open their minds to share their valuable knowledge. Knowledge sharing is a voluntary act which requires an individual's motivation. Based on the notion that an individual's motivation is of two types, namely intrinsic and extrinsic, a framework of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators of knowledge sharing was presented at the International Symposium on Information Technology (ITSIM) in June 2010, in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. There is a lack of research work which attempts to understand knowledge sharing motivation from intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivational perspective. Hence, the proposed framework incorporated extrinsic rewards, representing extrinsic motivation, and Organisation Citizenship Behaviour (OCB), representing intrinsic motivation, in Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Apart from understanding the individual's knowledge sharing motivation from a two-dimensional motivation perspective, the primary aim of this study is to extend the framework proposed in ITSIM'10 by adding demographic variable as a moderating variable. This will help to understand individual differences in knowledge sharing behaviour. At the same time, the study will present the results of ITSIM paper in detail. This study has used training institutes of an oil and gas company in Malaysia as a case. The proposed framework will overcome the research gaps in the literature by re-analysing the impact of extrinsic rewards, OCB and demographic variables on knowledge sharing. To test six major and, in total, 19 hypotheses, the questionnaire method was used to gather data from the trainers and facilitators at three training institutes of the oil and gas company. The data was analysed by using multi-regression technique. The results have shown that intrinsic motivation, represented by OCB in this study, is one of the strongest motivating factors for knowledge sharing behaviour, whereas extrinsic motivation, represented by extrinsic rewards in this study, has a moderate effect on an individual's knowledge sharing intention. The results have also shown that individuals differ in manifesting their knowledge sharing intention into behaviour based on their gender and education level, whereas there is no difference among individuals with different experience levels in manifesting their knowledge sharing intention into behaviour. The study will help to understand the individual's knowledge sharing motivation from intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivational perspectives and, at the same time, individual differences in knowledge sharing behaviour. It will aid the managers at training institutes to promote knowledge sharing in their organisations.