An examination of the relationship between job satisfaction and tacit knowledge sharing among knowledge workers: A quantitative study

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and tacit knowledge sharing among knowledge workers. The unit of analysis focused on interactions between individual knowledge workers and their attitudes toward their jobs and in the exchange of tacit knowledge. The research design was a cross-sectional quantitative study that was grounded in the real world of positivism. The survey instruments used to conduct the study consisted of two existing validated survey instruments. The data were collected from active members of a professional association of knowledge workers through the use of self-administered surveys. These surveys were e-mailed to 325 active members, of whom 47 responded; 2 declined and 1 was incomplete, resulting in 44 usable cases. The survey was hosted online via SurveyMonkey, a secured third-party survey vendor employed to collect and store survey data. The analyses were conducted using Pearson r, a bivariate measure and a simple regression analysis, to determine the extent of the linear relationship between the two variables (job satisfaction and tacit knowledge sharing among knowledge workers). Further, inferential statistics were used to compute the probability from the sample mean so that inferences could be drawn on the specific group of knowledge workers. From the results, the researcher found that there was a strong positive relationship between job satisfaction and tacit knowledge sharing among knowledge workers.