The relation between employee characteristics and knowledge sharing
VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems
ISSN: 2059-5891
Article publication date: 11 November 2020
Issue publication date: 12 August 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge sharing becomes crucial in today’s competitive world to foster organizational performance. This paper aims to explore which employee characteristics facilitate knowledge sharing in the organizations and to examine the dimensions of these characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
Opinion-based questionnaires among employees in Czech companies were applied. The research design in this study was cross-sectional. The hypotheses were tested by Pearson’s correlations and regression analyses.
Findings
The findings support the idea that specific individual employee characteristics increase knowledge sharing in the organization. Four categories of potentially appropriate employee individual characteristics were suggested: social and communication skills; positive work feelings; competences for problem-solving; and employee’s self-efficacy. However, only employee’s positive work feelings and self-efficacy significantly predicted the extent of knowledge sharing in the organization.
Practical implications
The findings offer a basis for future research. The results of the study can be used in recruiting new employees and managerial decision-making. The recruitment methods and the selection methods deployed should enable the firm to attract those whose values are in harmony with the organization’s values. Managers should build a work environment that promotes greater and more trusting ties among employees via organizing social activities for employees, a supervisor’s acceptance of an employee’s autonomy and responsibility and increasing employees’ confidence in their abilities.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to investigate dimensions of employee knowledge-oriented characteristics. It supports the idea that some individual employee characteristics boost spontaneous knowledge sharing behaviour.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This contribution was written with the support of the internal TBU projects RO/2016/07, “The Improvement of Organizations’ Performance through Human Capital Management,” and RO/2018/04, “Facilitating Knowledge Sharing in order to Increase Organizational Performance.”
Both the mentioned projects supported the survey financially. Their identification numbers and titles are correct.
Citation
Matošková, J., Bartók, O. and Tomancová, L. (2022), "The relation between employee characteristics and knowledge sharing", VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, Vol. 52 No. 4, pp. 486-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-05-2020-0092
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited