Daily knowledge sharing at work: the role of daily knowledge sharing expectations, learning goal orientation and task...

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Knowledge sharing is crucial for organizational success but often studied as a static behavior.
• Existing research overlooks the day-to-day fluctuations in individual knowledge sharing.
• Role theory and cost-benefit frameworks provide a basis for understanding dynamic knowledge sharing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the daily impact of supervisor and coworker expectations on employee knowledge sharing.
• To examine the moderating roles of learning goal orientation and task interdependence on this relationship.
• To explore the within-person dynamics of knowledge sharing over short time periods.

Main Methods:

• Two preregistered 10-day diary studies were conducted with UK employees.
• Study 1 involved 101 respondents completing 557 daily surveys.
• Study 2 involved 88 respondents completing 401 daily surveys.

Main Results:

• Daily knowledge sharing expectations positively predicted daily employee knowledge sharing.
• Coworker expectations showed the largest effect size.
• Task interdependence did not moderate the daily relationship.
• Learning goal orientation demonstrated varying moderating effects across the two studies.

Conclusions:

• Daily expectations significantly influence immediate knowledge sharing behaviors.
• Individual differences, particularly learning goal orientation, play a complex role in moderating this effect.
• Understanding short-term fluctuations and boundary conditions is key to fostering knowledge sharing in organizations.