Impact of personal and organizational factors on knowledge sharing attitude of university teachers in Pakistan

Why do academicians share knowledge? A study of higher education institutions in India

Purpose

Indian higher education institutions are diverse in nature; there are institutions with good infrastructure and resources as well as institutes that have little in terms of resources and infrastructure. Keeping in mind the relevance of knowledge sharing in academic institutions, the researchers in the present study have tried to find factors determining the knowledge sharing behavior of the academicians of different institutes in India.

Design

The researchers in the present work have expanded on extant research by demarcating factors that affect the knowledge sharing behavior of academicians. A structured questionnaire was shared through e-mail and social media groups, and a snowball approach was used to reach out to the maximum number of respondents.

Findings

The present study offers an integrated and extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) theoretical model, augmenting it with constructs such as motivation and the opportunity to share knowledge adapted from related studies. The findings of this research provide theoretical as well as practical suggestions in determining and explaining the knowledge sharing behavior of academicians.

Originality

The researchers in the present study have tried to present a shorter and more reliable scale that can be used to assess the behavioral intentions of academicians to share knowledge.

The association between workplace ostracism and knowledge-sharing behaviors among Chinese university teachers: The chain mediating model of job burnout and job satisfaction

Workplace ostracism is an essential predictor of knowledge-sharing behaviors, but few studies have explored the influence of this mechanism in higher education. According to the conservation of resources theory, this study elucidated the roles of job burnout and job satisfaction as sequential mediators of the link between workplace ostracism and knowledge-sharing behaviors in a sample of 388 university teachers. The results of the study were analyzed via structural equation modeling (SEM). Higher knowledge-sharing behaviors were associated with lower workplace ostracism, lower job burnout, and more job satisfaction. Furthermore, increased workplace ostracism was associated with more job burnout, but job satisfaction was not related to workplace ostracism. The relationship between workplace ostracism and knowledge-sharing behaviors was mediated by job burnout and was sequentially mediated by job burnout and job satisfaction. These findings help to clarify the mechanisms underlying the association between workplace ostracism and knowledge-sharing behaviors in university teachers. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Why do rewards fail to motivate knowledge sharing behavior among employees?

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the factors that lead to the failure of some rewards to induce knowledge sharing behavior among employees, with much focus on employees’ attitudes and leadership’s knowledge of employees’ preferences, and presents a model that depicts the linkages.

Design/methodology/approach

To investigate why the provision of some rewards fails to induce knowledge sharing behavior among employees, this study uses the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses framework to identify and analyze 56 articles published from 2000 to 2021.

Findings

Knowledge sharing is positively linked to organizational performance. Further, employees’ negative attitudes toward a reward system negatively relate to knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, management’s lack of knowledge of employees’ preferences regarding rewards leads to the provision of incorrect rewards that do not enhance knowledge sharing behavior. Finally, a conceptual model depicting the linkages among the variables under consideration has been presented.

Research limitations/implications

Through the present study, employees’ attitudes toward rewards and leadership’s knowledge of employees’ preferences have been presented as critical factors that can lead to the failure of some rewards to induce knowledge sharing behavior. Further, the conceptual framework that can guide managers and leaders in strategizing on how best to develop and implement correct reward systems has been presented.

Originality/value

The present study is a significant contribution to the literature by focusing on the negative side of rewards toward knowledge sharing behavior with a focus on employees’ attitudes and leadership’s awareness of employees’ preferences regarding rewards.

Investigating Role of Technological and Organizational Factors Towards Students’ Knowledge Sharing Behavior in Pakistan

This study aims to determine engineering students’ behavior towards Knowledge Sharing (KS). Researchers also investigated the effect of technological and organizational factors on students’ behavior towards KS. Another purpose of this paper was to identify the difference among different universities’ students regarding their KSB. The authors conducted this study using quantitative methodology. The population of the study was engineering students admitted in 10 Pakistani universities based in different Pakistani provinces and capital. Results confirmed that the majority of Pakistani engineering students were sharing knowledge with their fellows with good frequency. It was also found that students of different universities differed significantly regarding their KSB. However, factors related with technology and organization did not influence (significantly) KSB of engineering students of Pakistan. Results might facilitate students and organizations, especially related to the field of education in understanding the role of technological and organizational related factors towards students’ KSB.

Knowledge Sharing Through Enterprise Social Media in a Telecommunications Context

This study investigated the motivators knowledge workers employ when sharing knowledge though enterprise social media (ESM) in a telecommunications context. A questionnaire was distributed among knowledge workers in one of the leading telecommunication companies in the Sultanate of Oman. Based on the Structural Equation Modelling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) analysis of 100 responses from knowledge workers, results showed that technological motivators had significant effects on knowledge workers’ knowledge sharing through ESM. Further analysis based on the knowledge type indicated that technological motivators and organizational motivators significantly impact knowledge workers’ tacit knowledge sharing, whereas only technological motivators impact knowledge workers’ explicit knowledge sharing. This study provides decision makers with useful insights on the motivators of sharing knowledge through ESM and further advances knowledge workers’ learning and business operations, especially in under-investigated countries.

Generation Z and intention to use the digital library: does personality matter?

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate the role of personality in digital library systems (DLS) adoption intention among Generation Z (Gen-Z) students. The study uses the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-2 and the five-factor model to investigate personality’s influence on Gen-Z’s DLS adoption intention.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is a descriptive causal investigation based on primary data collected through a self-administered survey using pre-validated tools. The study uses structural equation modeling to investigate personality dimensions’ direct and moderating effect on the dependent, independent variables and their relation.

Findings

The study results indicate that personality has no significant influence on Gen-Z’s DLS adoption, suggesting the ubiquity and inevitability of technology in current times. Also, only performance expectancy had a considerable impact on DLS adoption among Gen-Z going to college – a deviation from past studies where multiple independent variables have influenced DLS adoption when examined from different technology adoption model angles.

Research limitations/implications

The current research is done on Gen-Z, and thus the results are ideographic to the cohort.

Practical implications

The results of the study can be used to effectively design and communicate technology-enabled information solutions among the Cohort.

Social implications

The results of the study help better understand the factors affecting the technology adoption intentions of Gen-Z. Such understanding can help in better design and implementation of technology-enabled solutions for the cohort, maximizing such system adoption and its effective and efficient utilization.

Originality/value

The study explores the impact of personality on DLS adoption intentions, hitherto unexplored. The research also focuses on Gen-Z – a cohort born in a technology-enabled world whose attitude and preferences towards technology might differ. The study’s findings will help understand the influence of personality on DLS adoption among the Gen-Z and can be used to design, promote and evaluate such systems.

Knowledge Sharing through Social Networking Sites (SNSs): A Study of Pakistani Research Students

The present study investigated the knowledge-sharing behavior of library and information management researchers, using the lens of the theory of planned behavior. The study is quantitative and adopted a survey questionnaire as a data collection technique. The snowball sampling technique was considered suitable to recruit respondents to the study. Data were analyzed with the help of SPSS (20.0) and the ADANCO (2.0.1). The research findings confirm that subjective norms and perceived behavioral control have a significant impact on intentions to share knowledge, whereas knowledge sharing intentions have a statistically significant positive impact on knowledge sharing behavior through SNS among postgraduate students. Attitude towards knowledge sharing directly triggers knowledge sharing practices through social media networking sites. Intentions to share knowledge do not mediate the relationship of attitude and knowledge sharing behavior. The theory of planned behavior has widely been used to measure knowledge-sharing behavior in different sectors. However, the relationship between attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control, intentions to share knowledge within the domain of social media is explored first time in this study, particularly in the context of the library and information science post-graduate students.

Trust and social network to boost tacit knowledge sharing with mediation of commitment: does culture moderate?

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the tacit knowledge-sharing framework among Pakistani academicians. The objective is to study trust and social networks as antecedents to foster tacit knowledge sharing with the mediating role of commitment. Furthermore, the moderating role of organizational knowledge-sharing culture is also examined.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applied a survey-based quantitative research design to test the proposed model. The nature of data are cross-sectional and collected with stratified random sampling among public sector higher education professionals of Pakistan. The total sample size for the present research is 247 respondents. The variance-based structural equation modeling technique by using Smart_PLS software is used for analysis.

Findings

Data analysis and results reveal that trust and social networks are significant predictors of tacit knowledge sharing among Pakistani academicians while commitment positively mediated the relationships. While the moderating role of organizational knowledge-sharing culture is also established.

Research limitations/implications

The current research explains tacit knowledge sharing among academics with fewer antecedents i.e. social network and trust with limited sample size and specific population. There is still a great deal of work to be done in this area. Hence, the study provides direction for including knowledge-oriented leadership and knowledge governance in the current framework. Moreover, the framework can be tested in different work settings for better generalization.

Practical implications

The study gives an important lead to practitioners for enhancing tacit knowledge sharing at the workplace through a robust social network of employees, building trust and boosting employees’ commitment, as well as through supportive organizational knowledge sharing culture.

Originality/value

The research comprehends the tacit knowledge sharing framework with theoretical arrangements of trust, social networks, commitment and culture in higher education workplace settings under the umbrella of social capital theory.

Motivational antecedents, employee engagement and knowledge management performance

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the causal relationships between organisational practices, employee knowledge management (KM) engagement and organisational KM performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a quantitative research approach, an online survey of 536 knowledge workers from multinational knowledge-based organisations located in Sri Lanka was carried out. The data were analysed with structural equation modelling.

Findings

Teamwork, reward structure, learning, performance management and employee empowerment are found to be motivational antecedents of KM engagement while, subsequently, organisational KM performance is affected by employee KM engagement.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study are based on the use of five key organisational practices derived from the literature. Further research is needed to establish whether the findings extend to other organisational practices such as resourcing strategy, organisational culture and communication. Further, the sample for this research comprised knowledge workers in Sri Lankan organisations which limit the generalisability of the findings.

Practical implications

Teamwork, rewards structure, learning, performance management and employee empowerment are organisational practices that foster employee KM engagement. Organisational practices and employee KM engagement are imperative for the organisational success of KM initiatives.

Originality/value

This research introduces the term KM engagement as the indicator of individual-level KM success and integrates the sequential linkage between individual-level KM outcomes (i.e. KM engagement) and organisational KM outcomes (KM performance) which has not yet been investigated.

Ethical leadership and knowledge hiding: testing the mediating and moderating mechanisms

Purpose

Recent scholars have established that knowledge hiding does not equate to the lack of knowledge sharing. Due to a scarcity of papers on knowledge hiding, this paper aims to understand the mechanisms through which ethical leadership influences knowledge hiding based on social learning theory and social cognitive theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The field study involves 243 employees from public listed companies in Malaysia. Partial least square structural equation modelling is used to test the hypothesised relationships.

Findings

The results indicate that moral disengagement mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. Furthermore, organisational commitment moderates the negative relationship between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding, such that the negative relationship is stronger when organisational commitment is high.

Originality/value

This study is the first to investigate the influence of ethical leadership on knowledge hiding through the mediating effect of moral disengagement. Moreover, organisational commitment is an important boundary condition for the relationship between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. The implications for practice and future research are also discussed.

Fostering Knowledge Sharing Behavior Among Pakistani Engineering Students: Role of Individual and Classroom Related Factors

The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ behavior towards knowledge sharing and the factors, individual and classroom, affecting it. Quantitative research design was used to conduct this study. Students enrolled in engineering universities, located in three provinces (Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh) and capital (Islamabad) of Pakistan, were the population of this study. Researchers collected the data through survey questionnaires. SPSS-22 was used to analyze the collected data and for testing the hypotheses. Results revealed that the majority of engineering students’ knowledge sharing behavior was positive. Findings proved that majority of individual and classroom related factors were affecting knowledge sharing behavior of Pakistani students significantly. This is the first study which investigated Pakistani 10 engineering category universities’ students’ behavior towards knowledge sharing and factors impacting it. Results contributed in the body of literature by advancing it regarding behavior towards knowledge sharing in the context of engineering students of Pakistan. The study’s findings can play a vital role in facilitating educational institutions, students, and academicians in understanding the factors impacting students’ knowledge sharing behavior. This, in turn, might help them in removing negatively influencing factors by taking essential measures and facilitating factors with positive impact to improve students’ knowledge sharingbehavior.

A Model for Measuring the Impact of Organisational Factors on the Effectiveness of the Knowledge Sharing System

Knowledge Sharing (KS), as a serious part of promoting the organization’s success, is a process of swapping knowledge among families, people, and organizations. Therefore, this paper tries to study the impact of organisational factors on the effectiveness of the KS, via four important variables. We presented a project plan that contains four research hypotheses, with the effectiveness of the KS as a dependent construct. Data were collected by questionnaires. The size of the sample for structural equations has come to be 247 via the utilization of the sample measurement procedure. A case study was carried out in 247 employees of the East Azerbaijan Customs organizations in Iran include: Customs of Tabriz, Nurduz, Jolfa, Sahlan, and Maragheh. In our investigation, Smart PLS 2.0 has been utilised for the measurement assess. Besides, the structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure has been utilised for testing the validity and reliability of the supplied model’s measurement. The results showed that organisational culture is the most important factor in the effectiveness of KS. Furthermore, information technology (IT) acceptance, attitude towards KS, organisational climate, and attitude to KS play an important role in the effectiveness of the KS. As a general result, organization managers must implement KS in their organizations to improve organisational performance, reduce costs, enhance organisational innovation, and reduce repetitive work, through which international trade facilitates and helps the country’s economy. Also, the managers may arrange rules for the efficiency of rewards; moreover, they should maintain an open and conducive environment for new ideas and criticism. Managers of organizations should make the culture of teamwork pervasive through actions such as education of teamwork and identification benefits of working in teams. In this way, they can improve the attitude of staff to KS and information and reach behaviours accompanied by KS.