Tacit knowledge sharing and creative performance: a transformative learning perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neethu Mohammed ◽  
T.J. Kamalanabhan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between tacit knowledge-sharing and creative performance of employees from a transformative learning perspective. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses Structural Equation Modeling to analyze data collected from 440 employees working in Information Technology industry, using a survey-based questionnaire. Findings The dimensions of tacit knowledge-sharing - tacit knowledge-seeking and tacit knowledge-contribution, positively affect employees' creative performance. Further, an individual’s bisociative cognitive style reinforces the positive association between tacit knowledge-sharing and employee creativity. Originality/value The study contributes to the field of knowledge management by using a new theoretical lens, Transformative Learning Theory, to examine how tacit knowledge-sharing adds value to knowledge workers in terms of enhancing their creativity.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shehla Malik

Purpose This study aims to assess the role of various emotional intelligence dimensions in stimulating two types of employee knowledge sharing behaviour – tacit knowledge sharing behaviour and explicit knowledge sharing behaviour. Design/methodology/approach The causal relationships among the constructs were tested by applying quantitative research methods. A questionnaire-based survey was used to draw a sample from 10 information technology (IT) organizations in India. A data set of 308 usable questionnaires was analysed using structural equation modeling technique to test the hypothesized relationships among various constructs. Findings This study found that all four dimensions of emotional intelligence, namely, self-emotional appraisal, others’ emotional appraisal, use of emotion and regulation of emotion have a positive effect on tacit knowledge sharing behaviour of employees. In addition, explicit knowledge sharing behaviour was also positively influenced by others’ emotional appraisal and use of emotion. However, no significant effect was made by self-emotional appraisal and regulation of emotion on explicit knowledge sharing behaviour of employees. Originality/value Little is empirically known about the link between emotional intelligence constructs and knowledge sharing behaviours. This study brings new insights by assessing the role of different emotional intelligence dimensions on two different types of knowledge sharing behaviour. An interesting finding advances the understanding of knowledge sharing behaviours by indicating a greater variance in tacit knowledge sharing behaviour (caused by emotional constructs) as compared to explicit knowledge sharing behaviour.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Haoyu Chen ◽  
Ersi Liu ◽  
Yunwu He ◽  
Edwin Cheng

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of cooperative and competitive personalities on tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) by exploring the mediating role of organizational identification (OI) and the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS) among Chinese employees. Design/methodology/approach Conducting a network survey of ordinary employees from Chinese listed companies (2019) as the research objects, the authors collect 298 valid samples for research. The authors apply confirmatory factor analysis to test the reliability and validity of the constructs, structural equation modeling to verify the direct effect and the PROCESS macro to test the mediating and moderating effects. Findings The results show that there is a positive relationship between cooperative personality (COP) and TKS, and there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between competitive personality (CMP) and TKS. OI plays a mediating role between COP and TKS, while POS plays a negative moderating role between COP and TKS. Research limitations/implications This paper only takes Chinese employees as the research sample, and future research can make a cross-cultural comparison between the impacts of cooperative and competitive personalities on employees’ behaviors. Practical implications The results of this study suggest that enterprises should actively cultivate the COP of employees, and managers should refrain from intervening in the behaviors of employees with COP. At the same time, for employees with CMP, managers should guide them to control their competitive tendency at a reasonable level. The conclusions of this paper also suggest that managers should pay attention to the cultivation of employees’ OI. Originality/value This study plugs the gap in research on the impacts of cooperative and competitive personalities on TKS. It makes a contribution to the research development of COP and CMP and their influence mechanisms on employees’ behaviors. In addition, the negative moderating effect of POS on COP–TKS link verifies the correctness of Y theory. Studying the relationships among personality traits (cooperative and competitive personalities), cognition (OI) and behaviors (TKS), this paper makes a contribution to such a research stream.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Emair Albawwat

Purpose Drawing on the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) audit quality framework and related knowledge management literature, this study aims to examine the influence of tacit knowledge sharing on audit quality inputs within small audit firms’ realm. It also investigated auditors’ social capital antecedent effect via tacit knowledge sharing on audit quality inputs. Design/methodology/approach An integrated model was developed to depict the study constructs’ relationships. The model was then tested using the partial least squares structural equation modelling based on data collected from auditors belonging to small audit firms in Jordan. Findings The results indicate that tacit knowledge sharing influences positively the auditors’ values, ethics, attitudes, experiences, skills and knowledge (i.e. audit quality inputs). This finding implies that active tacit knowledge sharing within a small audit firm is a strong driver for audit quality through improving its inputs. The results also demonstrate that structural, relational and cognitive social capital indirectly affect audit quality inputs through tacit knowledge sharing. Accordingly, social capital can be viewed as an audit firm resource that can smooth auditors’ tacit knowledge-sharing progress. Originality/value The IAASB encourages audit firms to explore ways to boost audit quality. This study offers empirical evidence on the influence of tacit knowledge sharing on audit quality inputs as a way to boost audit quality. It also offers insights into the value of social capital dimensions and indicates the driving forces to make auditors willing to engage in tacit knowledge sharing and, as a result, improve audit quality inputs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-278
Author(s):  
Juanru Wang ◽  
Jin Yang

AbstractThis paper is to investigate how employees’ tacit knowledge sharing behavior is influenced by various antecedents. We propose that tacit knowledge sharing consists of three specific behaviors (i.e., socialization, externalization, and internalization) and they are influenced by four antecedents (trust, self-efficacy, knowledge tacitness, and IT support). A survey was conducted to collect data from 258 knowledge workers who worked on complex product development projects. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results demonstrate that trust, self-efficacy, knowledge tacitness, and IT support significantly affect the externalization and internalization behaviors, and trust and IT support significantly affect the socialization behavior. This study is helpful to organizations where it is critical for employees to share tacit knowledge. It suggests that tacit knowledge is difficult to share and organizations should nurture mutual trust between employees, enhance their self-efficacy, and provide sufficient IT support so that they are more likely to engage in tacit knowledge sharing.


SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402094572
Author(s):  
Yang Cai ◽  
Youming Song ◽  
Xia Xiao ◽  
Wendian Shi

The role of social capital in predicting knowledge sharing has received considerable attention in research. However, very limited research has investigated the mechanisms mediating this relationship. To address this important gap in knowledge, the purpose of this study was to examine employee vigor as a psychological mechanism mediating the effect of social capital on tacit knowledge-sharing intention. Data collected from 209 employees in multiple industries in China were empirically tested by using structural equation modeling analysis. The results show that social capital positively affects emotional energy, which then positively influences the intention to share tacit knowledge. However, neither physical strength nor cognitive liveliness mediates the path through which social capital impacts tacit knowledge-sharing intention. Our research findings unpack the impact mechanism of social capital on tacit knowledge-sharing intention, and provide practical insights into how to use social capital to facilitate employees to share tacit knowledge in organizations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-530
Author(s):  
Diaz Satriavi Yudhistira ◽  
Dedy Sushandoyo

Purpose The purpose of this is to explore recipients’ reactions to co-workers’ political self-disclosure on social media and their willingness to share tacit knowledge with the disclosers. The paper aims to understand whether political self-disclosure with dissimilar value and negative valence hampers tacit knowledge sharing among co-workers in a workplace setting. Design/methodology/approach This study applies an online survey combined with the experimental vignette methodology approach to collect respondent data. Further, the study uses the partial least squares-structural equation modelling method to analyse the 144 collected responses. Findings This study suggests that perceived content negativity towards co-workers’ political self-disclosure has a weak and significant indirect effect on recipients’ willingness to share tacit knowledge, and that perceived value dissimilarity has an insignificant indirect effect on recipients’ willingness to share tacit knowledge. Research limitations/implications This study is a cross-sectional research that was conducted at a public organisation, with a limited number of samples and non-probabilistic sampling method. Thus, the results of this study may be subject to bias, and the generalizability of the findings should be taken into consideration. Practical implications Although this study shows that political self-disclosure does not likely affect tacit knowledge sharing, senior management of an organisation is encouraged to educate their employees about the potential consequences of self-political disclosure embedded in information employees post in social media. The posted information may attract positive or negative perceptions from the recipient to the discloser. Therefore employees are expected to use social media properly and minimise the possibility of posting something that might trigger a negative perception or emotion from their co-workers. Originality/value Sharing topics related to political self-disclosure on social media potentially hampers tacit knowledge sharing in organisations and is relatively rare in the knowledge management literature. In particular, the existing literature bases its studies on private sector organisations. Furthermore, the empirical evidence of this study is based on an Indonesian public sector organisation, which is also relatively rare in the literature.


2015 ◽  
Vol 115 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Shao ◽  
Tienan Wang ◽  
Yuqiang Feng

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact mechanism of organizational culture (OC) on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) user’s explicit and tacit knowledge-sharing behavior in the context of enterprise systems usage. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from social cognitive theory, the authors developed a comprehensive model that integrates OC, computer self-efficacy and employees’ knowledge-sharing behaviors. In total, 343 valid questionnaires were collected from ERP users of 115 firms and structural equation modeling technique was used to test the model. Findings – Empirical results suggest that hierarchical culture that focusses on efficacy and uniformity is positively related with employees’ explicit knowledge sharing; group culture that focusses on trust and belonging is positively related with employees’ tacit knowledge sharing, and their relationship is fully mediated by employees’ computer self-efficacy. In addition, computer self-efficacy also partially mediates the relationship between rational culture and employees’ knowledge sharing. Practical implications – This study provides guidelines for top managers to enhance employees’ computer self-efficacy and facilitate employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior by developing appropriate type of OC. Originality/value – This study unpacks the mediating mechanism between OC and knowledge sharing, and contributes to the academic research of knowledge management in the context of enterprise systems assimilation.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shehla Malik

Purpose This study aims to examine the underlying process through which emotional intelligence impacts employees’ innovative work behaviour by testing the mediating role played by tacit knowledge sharing in organizations. The direct and indirect effects of emotional intelligence on innovative work behaviour of employees were explored. Design/methodology/approach A structured survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 171 full-time employees of five high-tech knowledge-intensive organizations located in India. The hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Findings The results revealed that emotional intelligence had a direct positive impact on tacit knowledge sharing and innovative work behaviour of employees. Similarly, tacit knowledge sharing positively influenced innovative work behaviour. The study further showed that the relationship between emotional intelligence and innovative work behaviour was partially mediated by tacit knowledge sharing. Practical implications To enhance innovative behaviour at work, organizations should concentrate on building the emotional competencies of its employees to increase their emotional intelligence level through suitable training programs. Besides, organizations should also focus on shaping a knowledge-sharing culture by building systems and processes through which free exchange of tacit knowledge among employees can be promoted to enhance their innovative work behaviour. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing pool of knowledge by demonstrating the unexplored effect of emotional intelligence on innovative work behaviour via the mediating role of tacit knowledge sharing. It also advances current literature on emotional intelligence, tacit knowledge sharing and innovative work behaviour by discussing useful theoretical implications of the findings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Rice ◽  
Marni Heinz ◽  
Ward van Zoonen

Purpose This study aims to take a public goods approach to understand relationships between collecting and contributing knowledge to an online knowledge sharing portal (KSP), mental model processing and outcomes at the individual and collective levels. Design/methodology/approach This study reports on a survey (N = 602) among tax professionals, examining the perceived individual and collective benefits and costs associated with collecting and contributing knowledge. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings Collecting and contributing knowledge led to considerable mental model processing of the knowledge. That in turn significantly influenced (primarily) individual and (some) collective costs and benefits. Results varied by the kinds of knowledge sharing. Whether directly from knowledge sharing, or mediated through mental modeling, the perceived costs and benefits may be internalized as an individual good rather than being interpreted at the collective level as a public good. Research limitations/implications The study is situated in the early stages of a wiki-type online KSP. A focus on the learning potential of the system could serve to draw in new users and contributors, heightening perceptions of the public goods dimension of a KSP. Practical implications A focus on the learning potential of the system could serve to draw in new users, and thus the number of subsequent contributors, heightening perceptions of the collective, public goods dimension of a KSP. Originality/value This study explores how knowledge sharing and mental model processing are directly and indirectly associated with individual and collective costs and benefits. As online knowledge sharing is both an individual and public good, costs and benefits must be considered from both perspectives.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 742-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Borges ◽  
Monica Bernardi ◽  
Renata Petrin

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare the factors that can influence the tacit knowledge sharing (KS) in two different cultures by investigating information technology professionals (IT) in Brazil and Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach A survey method was used and a standard questionnaire was applied. The sample size comprised 115 respondents from Brazil and 86 participants from Indonesia. A partial least squares analysis was used to assess the structural and confirmatory models and test the hypotheses. Findings The results indicate that, in both cultures, IT workers who are committed to the organization are more likely to engage in tacit KS behavior. Similarly, strong social ties play an important role in the willingness to share tacit knowledge. Also, there are major differences between the organizational cultures; for instance, whereas Brazilians seem to be influenced by team-oriented cultures, Indonesians seem to be indifferent. Research limitations/implications Limitations include the small sample size as only two cultures were chosen to assess the differences and the representation of just one professional category (IT). Originality/value This paper provides theoretical contributions as the literature lacks a macro-level analysis on the KS comparison between countries. The results advance the comprehension of tacit KS phenomenon by testing in a cross-country comparison the mediation effect of organizational commitment. To practitioners, this research presents important empirical contributions indicating how organizational culture, social environment, personality traits and employee commitment impact an individual’s willingness to share tacit knowledge with their coworkers.


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