Research On The Impact Of Chinese Cultural Factors On Knowledge Sharing And Employee Creativity

According to the knowledge-based theory of the firm, knowledge is the key resource to be able to create sustainable competitive advantages.Knowledge management practice of enterprise becomes a key point for enterprises to build their competitive advantages, and knowledge sharing is the core of knowledge management. Effective knowledge sharing can promote the free flow and appreciation of knowledge in organization. How to make knowledge resources flow freely between employees and realize its efficient and sufficient sharing is an imperative problem to be solved for modern organizations to take on knowledge management practice. Cultural factors may be the key driving factors or obstacles for knowledge sharing.Exploring the influence of Chinese cultural factors which effects employee knowledge sharing has great practical significance on Chinese organizational knowledge management practice.Effective knowledge sharing is the important factor to promote innovation, but how knowledge sharing promotes innovation in organizations remains unknown. As all we know, creativity is the source and foundation of innovation. According to the knowledge-based theory of the firm,we can reveal the relationship between employee knowledge sharing and individual creativity. However, in empirical research,.the relationship between employee knowledge sharing and individual creativity has not been deeply explored.This study focused on the relationship between Chinese cultural factors and employee knowledge sharing and the relationship between employee knowledge sharing and employee individual creativity at the individual level.Following the way of "Chinese cultural factors—employee knowledge sharing—employee individual creativity", the study put forward concrete research hypotheses and theoretical models. Adopting the questionnaire and using structural equation technology and hierarchical regressions, the study went on positive analysis on research hypotheses and theoretical models. The main research contents and conclusions are as follows:(1) This study explored the structure of knowledge sharing of employees. In Chinese culture background, the traditional cultural thought of "hold back" has been deeply rooted in people's minds. This paper focused on the content of organizational employee knowledge sharing through interview study, analyzed and discussed the content of interview with content analysis method, in order to grasp the characteristics and connotations of Chinese employee knowledge sharing. The study validated the concepts of common knowledge sharing and key knowledge sharing, and put forward the two dimensional structure of knowledge sharing:common knowledge sharing and key knowledge sharing. Meanwhile, the study developed corresponding measurement tool on their own combined with interviewed data. Based on a sample of data through questionnaire and empirical research, this study verified the rationality of the dimension divisions and the good reliability and validity of these measuring scales.(2)This study explored the structure of Chinese cultural factors related to knowledge sharing. This study based on the review of the literature of culture theory, combined with the characteristics of Chinese culture, using native concept put forward the 5 dimensions of Chinese cultural factors at individual level:collectivism orientation, hierarchy orientation, harmony orientation, Renqing orientation and Mianzi orientation. The five dimensions reflected the characteristics of Chinese culture:the pursuit of harmony, paying attention to Mianzi, thinking highly of Renqing, high collectivism and emphasis on hierarchy. The measuring scale was compiled on the basis of relevant variable measuring scales and combined with interview situations. Based on a sample of data through questionnaire and empirical research, this study verified the rationality of the dimension divisions and the good reliability and validity of these measuring scales.(3)This study explored the intrinsic mechanism of effects of Chinese cultural factors on employee knowledge sharing.Based on the previous studies, this study refined the five dimensions of Chinese cultural factors and the two dimensions of knowledge sharing. And at the same time we took relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract as moderating variables into the "Chinese cultural factors -employee knowledge sharing "model, and took deeply and comprehensive analyses of the relation between Chinese cultural factors and knowledge sharing, perfected the content framework of the research on Chinese cultural factors and knowledge sharing. The study found that the significant effects of Chinese cultural factors on common knowledge sharing exist, in which collectivism orientation, harmony orientation and Renqing orientation have a positive effect on common knowledge sharing, while Mianzi orientation has a negative effect on common knowledge sharing; the significant effects of Chinese cultural factors exist,in which collectivism orientation and harmony orientation have positive effects on the key knowledge sharing, while hierarchy orientation has a negative effect on the key knowledge sharing. Moreover, the psychological contract moderated the relationship between Chinese cultural factors and knowledge sharing, in which relational psychological contract strengthened the positive effects of collectivism orientation on key knowledge sharing, while transactional psychological contract weakened the positive effects of Renqing orientation on employee common knowledge sharing, and strengthened the negative effects of hierarchy orientation on employee key knowledge sharing.(4)This study verified the effects of employee knowledge sharing on individual creativity. Knowledge sharing as the core of knowledge management played a positive role in organizational creativity abilities. And employee creativity is the foundation and the source of organizational innovation. Hence employee knowledge sharing may improve employee individual creativity. In this paper, on the basis of the previous studies we refined the two dimensions of knowledge sharing and further analyzed the effects of knowledge sharing on employee individual creativity. The results of the empirical research showed that the employee knowledge sharing behavior promoted employee individual creativity. And the effects of the common knowledge sharing on individual creativity are greater than the effects of the key knowledge sharing.(5)This study explored the mediate impact of employee knowledge sharing in the process of the effects of Chinese cultural factors on employee individual creativity. With the intermediary of knowledge sharing, this study constructed and validated the whole model of the function of Chinese cultural factors on individual creativity, and found the influence mechanism of Chinese cultural factors on employee individual creativity through knowledge sharing behaviors. Through structural equation modeling techniques, the results indicated that harmony orientation, hierarchy orientation and.Renqing orientation affect employee creativity through the partial mediating functions. Collective orientation, harmonious orientation, harmony orientation and Renqing orientation have positive effects on employee individual creativity, while hierarchy orientation and Mianzi orientation have negative effects on employee individual creativity.(6)This study explored other influence factors of common knowledge sharing, key knowledge sharing and employee individual creativity. Because the knowledge sharing and employee individual creativity were affected not only by independent variable but also effected by many other factors which may be organization variables such as the firm sector and location, or individual variables such as sex, age,educational background and department ect. This study took these variables as control variables in order to verify whether they will affect the mediator variables and the dependent variables. The study found that the female employees have higher individual creativity comparing with the male employees; the employee's common knowledge sharing level changed as "U" type with the increase of their working time, the employees whose working time "under one year" have the highest level of common knowledge sharing. The level decreases with the increase of working time, and touches the bottom during "2-5 years", and then the level will increase with the increase of employee's working time; while the employee's key knowledge sharing level nearly presents as a unilateral trend of drop with the increase of their working time, the employees whose working time "under one year" have the highest level of key knowledge sharing, however the level of the employee key knowledge sharing is the lowest whose working time "under ten years". Relative to the employees of the sales department, financial department and administration department, the employees of R&D department have the higher level of common knowledge sharing and key knowledge sharing; and they have higher creativity than the employees of financial department. Relative to the employees in Chinese eastern region, the employees of Chinese central and western region has higher level of common knowledge sharing.Overall, the study is mainly an exploration.The conclusions of this study enriched the theory of knowledge sharing, culture and employee creativity, which guide our entrepreneurial practical of knowledge management. Finally, the certain limitations in the research need future improving and perfecting.