Knowledge management in higher education institutions in Mauritius

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.

Impact of Organizational Support and Social Capital on University Faculties' Working Performance

As the major concerns of higher education institutions (HEIs) are teaching, services, and research, this paper describes a region-wide evaluation of institutional performance in relation to universities in Taiwan. The evaluation was based on the perceptions of university professors regarding institutional slack and reputation, as well as internal and external social capital. The study sought answers to several research questions and adopted a survey approach. After choosing 30 universities of various sizes and from different regions, 926 professors were selected randomly as participants. Using PLS-SEM, this study confirms the influence of institutional slack, reputation, and internal and external social capital on performance. The results show that (a) institutional slack and reputation positively affect institutional performance; (b) internal social capital positively and significantly influences the relationships of institutional slack and reputation with performance; and (c) external social capital has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between institutional slack and performance. Concluding this paper, theoretical and managerial implications and suggestions for future studies are proposed.