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Antecedents and consequences of knowledge sharing with peers: A social capital perspective
, Mohammed N.
Published in Academic Conferences Limited
2018
Volume: 2
   
Pages: 1073 - 1079
Abstract
With the advent of knowledge economy, knowledge has become the most crucial component of organizations and to remain competitive, knowledge based organizations depend on their employees to share knowledge and to learn from each other. The main purpose of this study is to develop insights to further the understanding of enablers of employees’ knowledge sharing behavior. The study discusses the circumstances under which employees voluntarily engage in knowledge sharing with peers and how such behavior benefits the employees in workplace. A range of work on social capital, knowledge sharing and work performance is reviewed with an aim to identify the gaps and based on it, a theoretical framework is proposed. The framework incorporates the antecedents and outcomes of engaging in different types of knowledge sharing behavior – routinized and in-depth knowledge sharing which includes both contribution and seeking aspects. Drawing upon social capital theory, three dimensions of social capital are taken as the factors affecting knowledge sharing with peers – structural, relational and cognitive capital; and job performance as the outcomes - task performance and creative performance. We propose that the effect of perceived social capital on knowledge sharing (contribution and seeking) is contingent on the complexity of knowledge involved in the process. Structural, relational and cognitive capital is likely to have more influence on in-depth knowledge contribution and seeking with peers compared to routinized knowledge sharing. While considering the outcomes of job performance, routinized knowledge sharing is likely to be more significant in daily task performance, whereas in-depth knowledge sharing enhances creative performance of employees. Compared to previous studies that explored the role of social capital in knowledge sharing, this work is unique by offering a model that incorporates the different types of knowledge sharing behavior and its differential impact on job performance. It discusses the knowledge seeking aspect of knowledge sharing process as well, which has been overlooked in prior studies and thereby provides a conceptual comparison of different behavioral contexts in a single model. © 2018 Academic Conferences Limited.
About the journal
JournalProceedings of the European Conference on Knowledge Management, ECKM
PublisherAcademic Conferences Limited
ISSN20488963
Open AccessNo