| Different from industrial economy era, in knowledge-economy era knowledge is viewed replacing labor, capital and materials as the most important resource of competition for the organization. Most organizational knowledge is stored in individuals’ brains. If individuals don’t make use of knowledge, knowledge couldn’t create value for organizations by itself. Generally, knowledge can work for the organization in two ways:first, individuals make use of knowledge at work to create value of their own; second, individuals share knowledge with colleagues to enhance the organizational performance. Lots of Academic researches and business practice have shown that the latter (knowledge sharing among employees) is the key to improve knowledge validity.Although the importance of knowledge sharing for organizations should not be underestimated, knowledge sharing among employees is more an expected behavior of organizations than an individual actual behavior. Because knowledge-sharing behavior is out of the regular duties of employees in most organizations, organizations should motivate, rather than force, individuals to share knowledge. Based on this, it has been widely agreed that organizations should cultivate individuals’ motivation to share knowledge.Unfortunately, many organizational knowledge-sharing incentives didn’t achieve the desired effect, and not a few well-designed incentives based on the outcomes of current academic researches ended in failure. There are two major reasons. Firstly, current academic researches haven’t distinguished how different motivators affect employees’knowledge-sharing behaviors, so these research conclusions couldn’t effectively guide organizational knowledge sharing practice. Secondly, from the perspective of matching theory, the effect of motivations depends on knowledge-sharing situations. In other words, there is not universal motivation could apply to all kinds of knowledge-sharing situations. However, little attention has ever been paid to the matching mechanism of motivation and knowledge characteristics in the process of knowledge sharing. In order to overcome the knowledge gap, this study systematically explores how different motivation affects employees’knowledge-sharing behaviors and the matching mechanism of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation and knowledge natural/social characteristics in the process of knowledge sharing.Based on the literature review, this study is divided into five sub-topics.(1) Which intrinsic/extrinsic motivation will affect employees’knowledge-sharing intention and behavior?(2) How these different intrinsic/extrinsic motivators affect employees’knowledge-sharing intention and behavior?(3) Whether there is any interplay between intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators in the process of knowledge sharing?(4) Will knowledge natural characteristics moderate the effect of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation on knowledge sharing?(5) Will knowledge social characteristics moderate the effect of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation on knowledge sharing?Around the above-mentioned sub-topics, this study choose knowledge self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others as the salient intrinsic motivation, rewards and reciprocal benefits as the salient extrinsic motivation, tacitness of knowledge (natural characteristic) and perceived private ownership of knowledge (social characteristic) as the salient characteristics of knowledge. Based on theory of reasoned action, theory of economic exchange, theory of social exchange, cognitive evaluation theory and theory of organizational citizenship behavior, this study proposes a theoretical model and20hypothesises. Based on a survey of knowledge workers from high-tech enterprises, and through descriptive statistics, data quality analysing and research hypothesis testing by using SPSS17.0and AMOS17.0,16hypothesises are supported,4hypothesises are not supported. Sepecific conclusions of this study are as followings. 1. The mechanism of how knowledge-sharing behavior occurs. This study applies TRA to explain how knowledge-sharing behavior occurs, and confirms (1) individual’s attitude toward knowledge sharing and subjective norm will positively affect his/her knowledge-sharing intention; and (2) individual’s knowledge-sharing intention will positively affect his/her knowledge-sharing behavior. Unlike previous studies, this study confirms attitude toward knowledge sharing and subjective norm are not two separate constructs, attitude toward knowledge sharing plays a partial mediating role between subjective norm and knowledge-sharing intention.2. The mechanism of how intrinsic/extrinsic motivation affects knowledge sharing. This study divides general motivation into extrinsic motivations and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation focuses on material or non-material rewards earned after certain act performed, and intrinsic motivation focuses on the pleasure or satisfaction derived from conducting certain behavior. Unlike previous studies, this study confirms that the mechanism of intrinsic motivation affects knowledge sharing is different from the mechanism of extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivators (knowledge sharing self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others) directly affect attitude toward knowledge sharing, and then indirectly affect knowledge sharing intention. Extrinsic motivators (rewards and reciprocal benefits) directly affect subjective norm and then indirectly affect knowledge sharing intention.3. The interplay between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation in the process of knowledge sharing. Organizations can integrate extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, if the two are independent of or conducive to each other. So this study further explores whether extrinsic and intrinsic motivators interact with each other. The results show that (1) rewards generate "crowding-out" effect on intrinsic motivators; and (2) reciprocal benefits result in "crowding-in" effect on intrinsic motivators.4. The moderating effects of knowledge characteristics. In order to explore the matching mechanism of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation and knowledge natural/social characteristics in the process of knowledge sharing, this study analysises the moderating effects of knowledge characteristics on the relationships between intrinsic/extrinsic motivators and knowledge sharing. The results show that (1) tacitness of knowledge negatively moderates the relationship between rewards and subjective norm;(2) tacitness of knowledge positively moderates the relationships between intrinsic motivators (knowledge sharing self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others) and attitude toward knowledge sharing;(3) perceived private ownership of knowledge positively moderates the relationship between rewards and subjective norm;(4) perceived private ownership of knowledge positively moderates the relationships between intrinsic motivators (knowledge sharing self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others) and attitude toward knowledge sharing.In summary, this study integrates motivation, knowledge characteristic and knowledge sharing into a unified theoretical framework, and provides a deeper insight into the different effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on knowledge sharing as well as the matching mechanism of motivation and knowledge characteristic. With more and more organizations treat knowledge as their strategic resource, the findings of our study not only help managers better understand how individuals’knowledge sharing intention takes place from motivation perspective, but also provide some meaningful suggestions and inspirations to organizations on how to design incentive mechanism of knowledge sharing. |
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