Why do People Share?

Abstract

Organisations invest heavily in knowledge management technologies and initiatives which are entirely dependent on the willingness of employees to share their knowledge. Educational and reward programs need to be informed by an understanding of what motivates people to share their knowledge at work. Prior research based on motivational theories suggests the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to encourage voluntary pro-social behaviours such as knowledge sharing. However, the literature on motivation in the context of knowledge sharing is still emerging and fragmented. This article therefore proposes an integrated model that brings together theoretical insights from motivational research to explain the influence of key intrinsic and extrinsic motivators on knowledge sharing. The article reports the results of the assessment of the model based on data collected across 10 organisations. The discussion of results contributes to the understanding of motivational factors influencing attitude and intention to share knowledge and their relative importance.

Using Knowledge Management to Improve the Effectiveness of Data Fusion Centers

“…Reciprocity is improved when the employees build relationships, SAT, does this through its team approach (Todorova and Mills, 2018). Enhanced reputation increases knowledge sharing as the sharer perceives it as a reward for sharing.…”

“…Enhanced reputation increases knowledge sharing as the sharer perceives it as a reward for sharing. SAT, through its team approach, allows its members to generate reputation through their participation in sharing (Todorova and Mills, 2018). Finally, organizational effectiveness has been shown to be improved when knowledge sharing is improved (Crhová and Matošková, 2018) so a SAT improves fusion center effectiveness by improving knowledge sharing.…”

Motivators of Researchers' Knowledge Sharing and Community Promotion in Online Multi-Background Community

“…Davenport and Prusak (1998) believe that reciprocity, as a control-oriented motivation, may impel people to share information with others to get further self-benefit. Past literature has verified the positive effect of reciprocity on knowledge sharing intention (e.g., Endres & Chowdhury, 2013;Todorova & Mills, 2018). Additionally, previous researchers have asserted that if an intense sensation of reciprocity in knowledge sharing exists in online organizations, the communication among members will be active, and the performance of the whole organization will be better (Wasko & Faraj, 2005).…”

Motivated to share? Development and validation of a domain-specific scale to measure knowledge-sharing motives

“…However, in doing so, they use rather broad operationalizations and define intrinsic KSM by, for example, liking or enjoying to share knowledge. While the results of these studies can tell us whether knowledge sharing is extrinsically or intrinsically motivated, they cannot tell us why exactly people share their knowledge – what are their exact motives (Todorova and Mills, 2018)?…”