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To Share or Not to Share: Assessing Knowledge Sharing, Interemployee Helping, and Their Antecedents Among Online Knowledge Workers

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Abstract

Sharing and helping are important issues in ethical research. This study proposes a model based on flow theory by postulating key antecedents as the critical drivers of knowledge sharing and interemployee helping. Flow is the holistic sensation that employees feel when they act with total immersion and engagement, facilitating individuals’ reciprocal activities such as knowledge sharing and interemployee helping. In the proposed model, knowledge sharing is influenced by flow experience directly and also indirectly via the mediation of interemployee helping. Accordingly, the flow experience is influenced simultaneously by four exogenous factors related to individuals’ perception about their work: work skills, self-fulfillment in challenges, perceived control, and vividness. This study contributes to the knowledge management literature by extending flow theory to the area of knowledge sharing and interemployee helping, by validating idiosyncratic antecedent drivers of the flow theory, and by performing a practical operationalization of the flow experience. This research also provides managerial implications for business leaders to boost their employees’ ethical behavior in terms of sharing and helping.

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Acknowledgment

This work was sponsored by the National Science Council of the Republic of China, Taiwan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Business & Management, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Chieh-Peng Lin

  2. Department of Business Administration, Vanung University, Chung-Li, Taiwan

    Sheng-Wuu Joe

Authors
  1. Chieh-Peng Lin
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  2. Sheng-Wuu Joe
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Correspondence to Chieh-Peng Lin.

Appendix: Measurement Items

Appendix: Measurement Items

  • Knowledge sharing (Source: Lin 2007b)

  • KS1. I share my job experience with my online co-workers.

  • KS2. I share my expertise at the request of my online co-workers.

  • KS3. I share my ideas about jobs with my online co-workers.

  • KS4. I don’t like to talk about my tips on jobs with my online co-workers. (Reverse coded)

  • Interemployee helping (Source: Lin 2006)

  • IH1. I help others who have heavy work loads.

  • IH2. I help others who have been absent from work.

  • IH3. I willingly help others who have work-related problems.

  • IH4. I help orient new employees even though it is not required.

  • Flow experience (Source: Novak et al. 2000)

  • TF1. I experience immersion in online collaboration with my co-workers.

  • TF2. In general, I frequently pay close attention to online collaboration with co-workers.

  • TF3. I feel that I am deeply involved with online collaboration most of time.

  • Work skills (Source: Koufaris 2002)

  • SK1. I am very skilled at online collaboration with my co-workers.

  • SK2. I know how to find what I want (e.g., data or documents) through online collaboration.

  • SK3. I know more about performing online collaboration than others in different companies.

  • Self-fulfillment in challenges (Source: Koufaris 2002)

  • CH1. Practicing online collaboration with my co-workers challenges me to perform to the best of my ability.

  • CH2. Practicing online collaboration provides a good test of my skills.

  • CH3. Practicing online collaboration stretches my capabilities to the limits.

  • Perceived control (Source: Choi et al. 2007; Koufaris 2002)

  • CO1. I can interact easily with others through online collaboration.

  • CO2. I can easily contact my supervisor through online collaboration

  • CO3. Online collaboration gives me direct/timely feedback.

  • Perceived vividness (Source: Lin and Bhattacherjee 2008)

  • VI1. I feel dynamic having online collaboration with my co-workers.

  • VI2. Performing online collaboration with my co-workers provides me with a lot of vividness.

  • VI3. I enjoy online collaboration with my co-workers.

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Lin, CP., Joe, SW. To Share or Not to Share: Assessing Knowledge Sharing, Interemployee Helping, and Their Antecedents Among Online Knowledge Workers. J Bus Ethics 108, 439–449 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1100-x

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