Abstract
Abstract
Knowledge sharing has been described as a key aspect of knowledge management. Most previous studies have examined knowledge sharing among employees from the same nationality but studies on knowledge sharing among multi-nationalities employees is rare. This study investigated factors that influence knowledge sharing among employees of diverse nationality in a multinational setting. The survey method via the use of the questionnaire was employed to collect data from 189 employees working with a multinational organization in Saudi Arabia. The data was analysed using the structural equation modelling (smart PLS). The result indicated that trust and management support are significant factors that influence knowledge sharing among employees of multi-nationality. This paper concludes that factors that affect knowledge sharing could differ in an organization with diversity of employees. Employees’ diverse culture, languages, beliefs, and experiences could affect the knowledge sharing process especially in a multi-nationalities organization. The implications of the findings were discussed.
Introduction
Knowledge is the valuable asset and the pivotal element of a firm’s competitive edge [1]. The knowledge management field which emerged in 1990 s is well recognized by the industries as a source of competitive advantage [2, 3]. Knowledge sharing which is one of the four processes of knowledge management is well known by the organizations as a good practice for knowledge management initiatives and the core of management practice. Generally, an individual’s intelligence is difficult to imitate, however through knowledge sharing, it can be exchanged and stored into routines, procedures, systems, software, and practices of the organization [4]. The flow of knowledge in an organization is a function of knowledge sharing behaviours of the employees in an organization. However, sharing one’s knowledge with others may not conform to an individual’s personality. For instance, in a competitive culture, individuals may be afraid to share knowledge with others due to the fear of losing knowledge power in the organization. Therefore, this may make knowledge sharing a difficult activity to implement within an organization [5].
Knowledge sharing is considered by most researchers as one of the most important processes of knowledge management [5–7]. Reference [8] noted that willingness to share knowledge with co-employees is crucial for knowledge sharing which in turn fuels a successful implementation of knowledge management. Knowledge has been observed to have an important role in creating a sustaining economic value among the traditional resource of land, workforce, and capital [9, 10]. Due to a very competitive market environment and the changing structure of the global economy, many organizations have come to the realization that knowledge is one of the primary sources of competitive advantage and that knowledge plays a critical role in the long term sustainability and success of any organization [4]. Managing organisational knowledge has being identified by researchers [4, 12] as a strategic means for organizations to improve their performance, become more innovative, gain new markets and sustain competitive advantage. The role of knowledge in attaining competitive advantage has lured many contemporary organizations to be keen in exploring the emerging field of knowledge management [4].
Based on these highlighted importance of knowledge management, many prior studies have explored the factors that influence knowledge sharing which include trust [13], management support, leadership, organizational structure, trust, reward [14], personal benefits, normative considerations, culture, supportive corporate culture and trust [15], extrinsic motivation- reciprocal benefits, organizational rewards and intrinsic motivation- enjoyment in helping others, knowledge self-efficacy [16]; interpersonal trust, communication, information systems, rewards and organizational structure [17]. While previous studies have mainly focused on knowledge sharing among employees in the context of homogenous culture, extensive study highlighting the challenges of knowledge sharing in the context of employees from diverse cultural background isstill limited.
Therefore, this study attempts to fill the gap by examining knowledge sharing among employees in the context of heterogeneous culture i.e. employees from multi-nationalities. Understanding the factors that influence knowledge sharing for each employee from specific culture in a multinational setting could lead to a more practical managerial intervention to encourage knowledge sharing in the organization especially in organization with multi-national employees, which are very common nowadays. This study differs essentially from prior studies by examining existing factors of knowledge sharing in the context of multi-nationality context where the employees come from different culture and orientation.
Knowledge
According to [18], there is no universal definition of knowledge. Different researchers examined the concept from diverse perspectives, thus presenting numerous definitions. Some authors view knowledge as experience embodied in the minds of the knower while others see knowledge as information embedded in manuals. For instance, [19] describes knowledge as a higher level of abstraction that exists in people’s minds, noting that knowledge is richer, broader, and difficult to capture than data or information.
On the other hand, [20] views knowledge as actionable information available in the exact format, at the exact time, and at the exact place utilised to make relevant decisions. Scholars like [21] views knowledge as a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, expert insight and grounded intuition that provides an environment and framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. Similarly, [22] conceptualised knowledge as a combination of experience, values, contextual information and expert insight that help evaluate and incorporate new experience and information.
In this study, we conceptualise and define knowledge as a justifiable and applicable true belief embodied in the minds of individuals and embedded in organizational manuals which properly utilized would enable organizations to innovate, compete and solve complex problems. Knowledge includes perception, skills, training, common sense, and experience. Knowledge starts and flourishes in the minds of experts, it is a combination of an expert’s experience, insights, values, and contextual information that provide a structure to evaluate, incorporate and form new experiences and information. Employees quest for knowledge, because it helps them to be effective in their work. In organizations, knowledge frequently becomes embedded not only in documents of repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices, and norms [17].
Knowledge management
Several definitions of knowledge management have been proposed by many researchers. According to [23] knowledge management can be defined as ‘a method for simplifying and improving the process of sharing, distributing, creating and understanding company knowledge’. Also, [24] define knowledge management as ‘the process of capturing, sharing and controlling the expertise of a company in order to develop the decision making so as to reach the organizational goals’. Similarly, [25] states that knowledge management is an efficient process for creating, obtaining and distributing, controlling and use of knowledge, to maintain organizational competitive advantage and to achieveits goals.
However, the definition of knowledge management is still very much intricate. Intricate in the sense, that there are numerous conflicting definitions of the concept. This may be due to the fact that the knowledge management field is multidisciplinary in nature with the mixture of perspectives from the science field, technology field, management field, and the business world. Form the science field, [26] views knowledge management as the process of discovering, capturing, sharing, and applying knowledge to enhance, in a cost-effective fashion, the impact of knowledge on achieving organizational goals while [27] from the business world perspective, describes knowledge management as a deliberate, systematic business optimization strategy that selects, distils, stores, organizes, packages, and communicates information essential to the business of a company in a manner that improves employee performance and corporate competitiveness.
Knowledge management emerged in the late 1980s. The first notable work on knowledge management by [28], summarizes knowledge as a decisive coordination of actions and not the processing of information. His contribution draws a useful distinctiveness between information and knowledge, as well as knowledge and wisdom. He argued that information is not knowledge and therefore explained that information forms knowledge but knowledge does not form information [28, 29] and thus cautioned that the purpose of knowledge management should be centred on turning description (information) into action (knowledge).
In this study, knowledge management is defined as the processes, practices and initiatives deployed to manage the ways knowledge resources is discovered, captured, shared and applied in an organization to solve problems, innovate, compete and attain competitive edge. Knowledge management comprises of an assemblage of strategies and practices used by an organization to discover, create, share, and transfer insights and experiences. These experiences and insights include knowledge embodied in the minds of employees and/or embedded in the organization in the form of processes or practices. For any organizations to be successful, it is very important to ensure that their knowledge resource is managed effectively. There are four basic processes of knowledge management namely knowledge discovery, knowledge capture, knowledge sharing and knowledge application [26]. However, this study essentially focuses only on knowledge sharing.
Knowledge sharing
Knowledge management literature vividly express that knowledge sharing is the most crucial process of knowledge management. Reference [6] described knowledge sharing as a process of identification, outflow, transmission and inflow of knowledge in terms of “activities of transferring or disseminating knowledge from one person, group, or organization to another.” Furthermore, [30] defined the concept of knowledge sharing as involving the sharing of facts, ideas, suggestions and expertise with employees linked to an organization’s performance. This exchange can take place in official meetings, seminars and presentations or unofficial gathering during tea breaks and along on the office corridors [31].
Reference [32] described knowledge sharing as the communication or allocation of individual knowledge in an organization. Furthermore [33] found and suggested that sharing among subordinates was primarily a voluntary activity. Knowledge sharing takes place when knowledge flows from an individual to another or from an individual to a group [33]. The knowledge flow can occur in email exchange, meetings, or other platforms (such as Intranet web pages). In addition [33] also observed that knowledge flows in different ways such as from top to bottom or bottom up. On the other hand, [34] described knowledge sharing as a practice where employees commonly exchange both explicit and tacit and knowledge to jointly create a new knowledge.
The review of knowledge sharing definitions exposes that there are many ways to understand precisely what knowledge sharing is all about. Therefore, knowledge sharing needs a common perspective where distinctive individual knowledge is exchanged, evaluated and integrated with that of others within the organization. In this study, knowledge sharing is conceptualised in terms of actual participation of individuals, thus knowledge sharing is defined as process and practices of disseminating or exchanging knowledge resources among individuals to create applicable a new knowledge which is beneficial in terms of competitive and economic value for the organization. Knowledge is action, not a description of action [28]. In other words, knowledge differs from information in the sense that information is a symbolic description of action while knowledge is action itself [28]. Therefore, in this study, we focus on tacit knowledge shared among the employees in form of actions, professional competences, skills and capabilities through processes such as socialization.
A firm’s ability to effectively utilize its knowledge is highly dependent on its employees who actually generate, share, and use the knowledge [27]. Similarly, [17] suggested that organizations should focus on embedding knowledge sharing into routine daily activities to ensure that all employees participate in sharing their best practices and lesson learnt. In sum, Knowledge sharing is fundamentally the act of making useful organizational knowledge available to every members of the organization. Knowledge sharing between individual employees is the process by which knowledge held by an individual is converted into a form that can be understood, absorbed, and used by other employees with the organization [27].
Research motivation and opportunity
In knowledge sharing, we as humans play an important role in the exchange of knowledge, simply because knowledge originates and prospers in our minds. Over the years, human diversity and its influence on different components of group processes and organizational performance has attracted much research attention [35]. Many studies have been carried out on different category of diversities such as management diversity [36], multinational enterprise management [37], multinational teams [38], organizational demography [39] or individual internationalization (cultural and linguistic) and demographic (age and gender) diversity [35]. Generally, this line of research argues that both the weaknesses and strengths of diversity in organizations roots from different cultural, demographic, socio-economic and national backgrounds of their members [40].
According to [41], in recent times, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing research domain have attracted the interest of diversity studies which have increased the number of studies examining the benefits of diverse groups with regards to knowledge resources and variation in perspectives [42, 43]. Previous studies have consistently shown that diversity groups frequently fail to successfully utilise their full knowledge potentials; Though diversity in knowledge and point of views is important for an organization to flourish yet it might not always guarantee a better performance or best decision making if the diversity is not well managed [44–46].
Furthermore, there are existing studies that document how diversity in human populations may lead to social classifications that set challenges for knowledge sharing behaviour and interpersonal interactions [47]. However, other studies have shown that diversity in skills and individual perspectives may be a value for knowledge sharing behaviour [43, 49]. While, these arguments might appear opposing, it could be argued that diversity, if managed appropriately could be beneficial to an organization. Claims by [35] suggest that limited efforts have been made to study knowledge sharing in the context of employees with cultural diversity. Taking this claim further into account, this paper attempts to fill a specific gap through the examination of factors that influence knowledge sharing in multi-nationalities workforce.
Linking diversity at workplace with knowledge sharing
Today’s complex economy requires people to collaborate within groups across cultural and geographic boundaries. By doing so, these groups are able to create significant competitive advantages through diverse ideas, pooling knowledge and differing approaches to work goals. However, employees may decide to share (or resist to share) knowledge for different reasons. For example, employees may share knowledge because they enjoy helping others or as a result of reciprocity, or an employee may resist sharing knowledge because they perceive that knowledge is power. Such employees might have fear that if they share their knowledge, it could harm their position or status [50].
According to [51] universal declaration on cultural diversity (Articles 1 and 3), cultural diversity whichis a source of exchange, innovation and creativity, is necessary for humankind just as biodiversity is necessary for nature. Cultural diversity is one of the roots of development, not only in terms of economic growth, but also a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence. Declarations like [51] indicate that society as well as business enterprises could profit financially from the employment of cultural diversity [36]. Managing the diversity of knowledge, skills, expertise and the combination of different perspectives is essential to create new and innovative ways of improving business procedures, Further it may be imperative to the gaining of a competitive advantage [52, 53].
Human diversity and its impact on different areas of group processes and organizational performance have been the main interest of much research [35]. Cultural diversity, when viewed through the basic analysis, could be considered a combination of people from diverse national background. However, this encompasses a larger pool of variables that include a mixture of identities, behavioural patterns, languages, diverse skills and knowledge linked to human existence [54]. In recent times, researchers have examined the many topics surrounding the relationship between cultural diversity and knowledge resources.
As previously eluded, knowledge would add little value if it is not shared in the organization. However, to encourage knowledge sharing among employees, some mandated social interactions should take place within an organization [55]. There are a variety of barriers that could prevent individuals from sharing their knowledge in a social community which include personality characteristics [56], trust and awareness [57], distrust, time consumption, intensive efforts and workload [1, 58]. Interaction patterns which are controlled by social structures such as language, identification and communication style could be one of the adding challenges to knowledge sharing especially in culturally diverse community. Another noted challenge identified by [59] is the capability of managers to manage interaction patterns in order to encourage their employees to exchange their knowledge, experiences and ideas among themselves. Therefore, understanding the triggers of knowledge sharing behavior among different cultural group would help managers effectively utilize their firm’s knowledge resources.
Research framework and hypotheses development
The research framework (see Fig. 1) is formulated based on the selection of common variables that have been shown in previous studies as important factors that influence knowledge sharing. These factors of knowledge sharing highlighted in the research framework were derived from existing constructs in the knowledge sharing domain [12, 61]. We tested these variables in the context of multi-nationalities employees’ setting to see if the factors influencing knowledge sharing differs from the results of previous studies conducted in the same nationality context or if they could serve as universal factors of knowledge sharing no matter the culture of the employees. Five variables were selected to form the five hypotheses highlighted (H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5) in the research framework and empirically tested. The following discussion is presented to support the five highlighted hypotheses depicted in the research framework.
Trust and knowledge sharing
According to [13], trust in an organization improves connections between members and is considered as the centre of every relationship within the organization. Further, organization trust is viewed as the most cost-effective enabler of knowledge sharing. Most frequently, individuals may possibly be encouraged to share their knowledge based on the mutual trust relationship between the knowledge receiver and the contributor [61]. Employees tend to share when they perceive others as trustworthy, as they would not have the fear of the knowledge being misused or taken advantage of. Therefore, it is vital to build trust among employees in order to enhance employee knowledge sharing. Study conducted by [50] examined the impact of trust as a contextual factor and postulated that the degree of trust has an impact on collaborative efficiency in the organization.
Many previous studies [59, 62–66] have reported that a high level of trust facilitates knowledge sharing.Further, that there are high levels of trust among colleagues from same nationality. Trust was identified as an essential factor to facilitate sharing knowledge among employees’ of multi-nationalities. Therefore, this study proposes that, multi-nationalities employees’ share their knowledge when they perceive that the receivers from different nationality are truthful, honourable, and trustworthy. Higher trust provides employees a freedom not to fear harm from those who are from different cultures. Therefore, trust between the employees from multi-nationalities may facilitate the act of sharing knowledge among them easily and also have influence on knowledge sharing. Therefore, the first hypothesis is stated as:
Management support and knowledge sharing
Employees can increase their level of participation in knowledge sharing activities depending on the administrative and top management support they receive within the organization. Management support has been identified as important factor that influence knowledge sharing [14]. A study by conducted [67] found that top management support affected both the quality and level of knowledge sharing by influencing workers’ obligation to knowledge management. Perceived supervisor support and their encouragement of knowledge sharing also increase employees’ knowledge exchange and their perceptions of usefulness of knowledge sharing [68, 69].
In addition, [70] suggest that management directs and guides all processes related with knowledge sharing. They further suggested that managers can create a solid platform for all employees from different nationalities to enhance the act of sharing knowledge. While they postulated that managers can create sub-groups consist of employees from different culture, demographic and background in order to enhance interaction and also increase the act of sharing knowledge among them. Management support is one of the strongest influencer of attitudes towards knowledge sharing. We propose that, management support has positive effects on knowledge sharing. Further, we postulate that management support in the context of the multi-nationalities of employees setting may influence the employees to share their knowledge in a better way. Therefore, the second hypothesis is stated as:
Mutual reciprocity and knowledge sharing
Mutual reciprocity is regarded as an advantage that individuals gain from social exchange [71]. Mutual reciprocity is based on cost and benefit analysis. In the context of knowledge sharing, the provider of the knowledge will decide whether the receiver has the potential of giving back a positive outcome or not back to the provider [72]. Mutual reciprocity is the formal term given to the behavior where people perform for others with an expectation that an inducement will be reciprocated in some way at a future time. This relationship in the research does not stipulate whether the employees are from same nationality or different nationalities. For knowledge contributors, reciprocal relationship means that they can improve relationships with others via their contributions, and expect future inducements from others [50]. For that reason, expected reciprocal relationship can facilitate knowledgesharing.
Many existing studies have stressed the importance of mutual reciprocity as a factor affecting knowledge sharing [1, 64]. The reciprocation behavior can enhance the act of sharing knowledge among employees’ of multi-nationalities. We suggest that, if employees respond to the knowledge needs of other employees, the relationship among them could develop a bond and that bond will facilitate the act of sharing knowledge among them. This study further suggests that the reciprocation behavior of the employees in an organization can contribute to the improvement in the knowledge sharing behavior among the employee of multi-nationalities. Therefore, the third hypothesis is stated as:
Self-efficacy and knowledge sharing
Self-efficacy concerns not with the skills the person has but with judgments of what the person can do with whatever skills she or he owns [73]. As stated by [74], individuals’ act of making judgments about their own abilities gives an understanding into how they take decisions on sharing their personal knowledge. In the context of knowledge sharing, this suggests that a person with high self-efficacy may be more incline to share his or her knowledge. When knowledge self-efficacy increases, individuals gain confidence in terms of what they can do [75]. Many prior studies [1, 72] agree that when workers think that their expertise can improve work efficiency and increase productivity, they will be more incline to share knowledge with others.
Whether in the context of an organization where the employees’ are from a single nationality or multi-nationalities, employees with high self-efficacy and confidence of their ability to perform their job are likely to be influenced to share their knowledge with others. Arguably, employees’ self-efficacy to share their experiences or tacit knowledge with other employees may be high when they have been influenced or received an encouraging compliment or positive feedback on their abilities to do so. This acknowledgement of their skillfulness in an exacting behavior could inspire them to share their knowledge since they are recognized as such within the organization. Hence, we suggest that employee with a higher self-efficacy will be able to share their knowledge and experience more readily than other employees with low self-efficacy. We postulate this relationship that the employees with higher self-efficacy will give positive impressions about their capability, which we believe, will encourage them to share their knowledge. Therefore, the fourth hypothesis is stated as:
Altruism and knowledge sharing
Altruism is defined by [76] as the discretionary behaviors of helping others with organizationally relevant tasks or problems. Employees may be motivated by relative altruism of their desire to help others [21]. Altruism refers to the act of giving something to others without expecting returns. In other words, altruistic behavior is displayed when people share with others without thinking of any benefits. In the context of knowledge sharing, altruism can be referred to as act of sharing their experience and knowledge with others without thinking of the benefit in return. An altruistic person enjoys the act of helping others. Therefore, when others are looking for knowledge, he or she may share the knowledge to help them without estimating any future returns.
Previous research conducted by [72] showed that employees are basically motivated to donate knowledge because engaging in intellectual pursuits and solving problems is challenging or pleasing, and because they enjoy helping others. Whether the employees from same nationality or different multi-nationalities, knowledge workers who obtain enjoyment from helping others may be more encouraging oriented toward knowledge sharing and more tending to share knowledge. Since an altruistic employee enjoys helping other colleagues without expecting anything in return then altruism may be a factor that influences individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior. This study suggests that multi-nationalities employees from higher altruism culture may easily share their knowledge without expecting any rewards than employees with low altruism. Therefore, the fifth hypothesis is stated as:
Methodology
This study employed the survey method based on the use of questionnaire to gather data from multi-nationalities employees working with International Development Bank. This organization has around 800 employees from different nationalities. IDB Group has five entities with several management levels. We focused on multi-nationalities employees concentrated in the middle management and the lower management levels. We distributed 245 questionnaires using the simple random sampling method through on-line and paper-based method. Out of 204 returned questionnaires, 15 incomplete questionnaires were found and excluded from further analysis. Therefore, only 189 questionnaires were used for the final analysis of this study, which represented 77.14 % of the total questionnaires distributed. The smart PLS software was used to run the structural equation modelling.
Data analysis and findings
Descriptive analysis of the respondents shows that most of the respondents were males, who make up 87.3% of the total respondents while only 12.7% were female. This is expected due local culture. The distribution of respondents by age shows that majority of the respondents were over 40 years old with a percentage of 53.4% while 46.6% of the total respondents were less than 40 years old as illustrated in Table 1. Importantly, the distribution of respondents by their nationality showed that the majority of the respondents were from Saudi Arabia with 15.3% , employees from Yemen accounts for 11.6% of the total number of employees, Pakistan accounts for 8.5% , Sudan accounts for 5.8% , Algeria accounts for 4.8% , Palestine accounts for 3.7% , Senegal and Chad accounts for 3.2% each, Tunisha and Syria accounts for 2.6% each, Qatar accounts for 2.6, Somalia accounts for 2.1% and so on. A detailed breakdown of the demography of respondents based on their nationality and percentage in the workforce is illustrated in Table 2.
The distribution of respondents by their current position showed that out of all the respondents, the lower-level staff contributed the highest portion of the respondents, with a percentage of 82.6% while 17.4% of the total respondents were from the middle management level as depicted in Table 3. In order to further understand the demographic profile of the respondents, respondents were analysed by their educational background and length of service. Results showed that the majority of the respondents held a Bachelor’s degree, where they formed 64.6% of the total respondents. Meanwhile, 24.3% of them held a Master’s degree whereas 8.5% had a PhD degree, with the rest (2.6%) only having a high school certificate as shown in Table 4. Similarly, the distribution of respondents by their length of service showed that 23.3% of the total respondents have been serving the organization for less than 5 years. About 32.3% of them have been in the organization for 5 to 10 years, 27% had served for 11 to 20 years whereas 17.5% have spent more than 20 years working for the organization as illustrated inTable 5.
This study utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) approach using Smart PLS statistical software [81] to test the hypotheses in the conceptual research model. The Smart PLS M2 Version 2.0 was used to analyze the data using the bootstrapping method (1000 resamples) to determine the significance levels of the loadings, weights, and path coefficients.
Testing the measurement model
The data collected were subjected to convergent and discriminant validity analysis before the final analysis was conducted. Factor loadings, composite reliability and average variance extracted were used to assess convergence validity. The loadings for all items exceeded the recommended value of 0.6 except one item for mutual reciprocity and altruism respectively. Although both loading is below the recommended value of 0.6 but these items were not deleted because both have good Composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) loading. Also, mutual reciprocity have only three items, so deleting item 3 means that only two items would be left to measure the construct which is normally not suitable to run the smart PLS analysis. Composite reliability values (see Table 6), which showed the degree to which the items indicated the latent construct, ranged from 0.789 to 0.966, which exceeded the recommended value of 0.7. The average variance extracted (AVE) was in the range of 0.569 and 0.876 which exceeded the recommended value of 0.5. In addition, the discriminant validity was tested. It was tested by comparing the correlation between the study’s constructs and the square root of the average variance extracted for that constructs. As shown in Table 7, the square root of the AVE is greater than the off-diagonal correlation with other constructs indicating adequate discriminant validity. Therefore, the measurement model demonstrated adequate convergent and discriminant validity.
Testing the structural model
Table 8 and Fig. 2 show the results of the structural model. The results show that trust (b = 0.465, p < 0.01) and management support (b = 0.299, p < 0.01) are positively related to knowledge sharing. Altruism, mutual reciprocity and self-efficacy were not positively related to knowledge sharing. In addition, the finding of this study also indicated that trust contributed the most than other’s variables to knowledge sharing.
Discussion of research findings
Supported hypothesis
Trust among employees is a critical factor that influences knowledge sharing [82]. Many studies have also suggested that trust among workers is one of the success factors of knowledge sharing. Trust is the center of every relationship in organizations and many experts agree that it is perhaps the most important factor of a successful workplace. According to Table 4, the result showed that trust has a positive significant influence on knowledge sharing, which is consistent with the work of several researchers [1, 79] who found trust to be a significant factor to knowledge sharing among employees with the same nationality. Like the result of studies among employees of the same nationalities, the result of this study suggests that multi-nationalities employees also share their knowledge when they perceive the receivers from different cultures are truthful, honorable and trustworthy. This suggests that multinational employees may share their knowledge base on trust and irrespective of others different cultures or nationalities. The result also indicates that trust among the employees is considered as an important factor that influences employees to share knowledge whether in the context of the same nationality setting or different nationalities setting.
Based on the results, practical implication is that managers should implement a supportive knowledge management culture, norms and practices that build trusted and cooperative environment regardless of the employee’s nationality. Moreover, managers should bring employees together in common places in order to facilitate interactions with one another. We suggest that this process of interaction would lead to the increase of trust between employees and hence the act of sharing knowledge among them.
According to [14], management support has been identified as important factor that affect knowledge sharing. This study hypothesized that management support has a positive effect on knowledge sharing in multi-nationalities context. According to Table 4, the PLS result showed that management support has apositive significant influence on knowledge sharing. This result is consistent with the results of previous studies conducted in management support and knowledge sharing among employees from the same nationality [12, 67].
Although this study was conducted among multi-nationalities employees, management support has also been found to have a significant influence on knowledge sharing. Comparing the result of previous studies conducted among employees from the same nationality, the findings of this study suggest that in the context of employees from diverse nationality and employees of the same nationality, management support is an essential factor that influences employees to share their knowledge.
Practically, this result indicates that the management regardless of whether the employees are from the same nationality or multi-nationalities should take appropriate actions to enhance employee’s knowledge sharing by being a good example to their employees in terms of sharing knowledge with others. Additionally,management need to use techniques motivate employees to share their own knowledge within and across their departments. Finally, managers should support their employees in every aspect to let them feel that they are valued and highly supported by their managers. This could enhance knowledge sharing among employees in the organization.
Unsupported hypothesis
Though previous studies have found mutual reciprocity, self-efficacy and altruism to be significant to knowledge sharing yet they were conducted among employees with the same cultural composition. Contrary to previous studies, the results of this study showed that mutual reciprocity (β= –0.058, p > 0.05), self-efficacy (β= 0.039, p > 0.05) and altruism (β= 0.053, p > 0.05) have insignificant influence on knowledge sharing (which in itself is important to consider). These findings seem to imply that there are no universal factors that influence knowledge sharing. Certain factors holds true for employees from homogenous culture but not necessarily true in the context where employees are from multiple nationalities or diverse cultural background. However, that is not to conclude or claim that mutual reciprocity, self-efficacy and altruism are not the factors that influence knowledge sharing. These factors may hold for specific cultural background.
In terms of the influence of mutual reciprocity on knowledge sharing, the result showed that mutual reciprocity with path coefficient (β= –0.058, p > 0.05) has an insignificant negative relationship with knowledge sharing. According to [83], a negative aspect of reciprocity is the fear of exploitation, which is normally considered as a serious threat to knowledge sharing. The fear of exploitation exists in the minds of employees when they perceive that they are being asked to share valuable knowledge with very little or no benefit expected in return. This fear may be hindered the employees from sharing their knowledge with other colleagues. Due to the diverse composition of the respondents of this study, we suspect that mutual reciprocity affect knowledge sharing among employees from certain cultures but not among employees from some other cultures. Thus, combining these respondents in a study, the result become mix andinsignificant.
In addition, in terms of the relationship between self-efficacy and knowledge sharing, the result showed that self-efficacy with path coefficient (β= 0.039, p > 0.05) has an insignificant influence on knowledge sharing. As mentioned previously, this study was carried out in a multi-nationalities organization where the respondents were mostly from different nations and cultures. However, all the respondents were Muslims. With regards to the norms in Muslim religion, the norm of the individual is supposed to be humble. In the context of the study, the respondents may see it as an exaggerate act of showing-off or puff to share their own knowledge and experience with their colleagues during meetings and other endeavors, which disagrees with the teaching of Islam [79]. Therefore, their knowledge sharing behavior may not be influenced by their self-efficacy due to religious beliefs. However, we suspect that some of the respondents were from nationality with culturally high self-efficacy while others have lower self-efficacy, in addition to differences in their level of religion practices. Thus, combining them in a study has resulted in a mix and insignificant result.
Finally, in terms of the relationship between altruism and knowledge sharing, the results also showed that altruism has an insignificant positive relationship with knowledge sharing with path coefficient (β= 0.053, p > 0.05). As mentioned previously, [83] found that the fear of exploitation was a severe hindrance to knowledge sharing among employees. Fear of exploitation is a reflection of anxiety that employees experience when they perceive that they are lured to give away their invaluable knowledge without any reward attached to it. In addition, they may feel that their experience, knowledge or know-how is a valuable resource and a source of power thus they prefer not to share their knowledge. Using the same argument above, we suspect that some of the respondents were from nationality where altruism affects knowledge sharing while some of the respondents were from nationality where altruism does not affect knowledge sharing. Thus, combining them in a study, the result become mix andinsignificant.
In summary, previous study like [16] showed that mutual reciprocity, self-efficacy, and altruism would significantly influence knowledge sharing. However, her study was conducted among respondents from the same nationality. Our study was conducted among employees of diverse nationalities working in a multinational organization in Saudi Arabia and the results of our study revealed that these factors (mutual reciprocity, self-efficacy, and altruism) were insignificant influencer of knowledge sharing. Although speculative in nature, there could probably be two reasons why these factors were insignificant in a multi-nationalities context. These two reasons could probably be attributed to culture and religion. However, this assertion needs to be investigated and validated further.
Contributions and implication of this study
We present factors that affect knowledge sharing that could differ in organizations with diverse employees. Diverse culture, languages, beliefs, and experiences held by employees could affect the knowledge sharing process especially in a multi-nationalities organization. This idea is promulgated because scholars like [84–86] have posited that not all types of diversity are similarly related in facilitating knowledge sharing in a knowledge intensive organizational environment. For this reason, we have provided a research model derived from previous studies to be tested in a multi-nationalities organization. We believe that the findings from this current study would raise interest on studies to explain how employee diversity affects knowledge-sharing behaviour. This would provide helpful guidelines for human resource managers and knowledge workers working in today’s growing number of diverse knowledge-intensive organizations.
Cautiously taken generalization into consideration and further validation of the proposition, conclusions on the results of this study and its practical implications are stated in the context of an organization with multi-nationalities of employees. Firstly, taken into account findings from previous studies conducted in the same nationality context and this study, the results of this study indicate a significant influence of trust on knowledge sharing, which means that employees may share their knowledge to fellow employees whom they found to be reliable and trustworthy regardless whether they are from the same nationality or other nationalities. For that reason, in an effort to make multi-nationalities employees in the organization share their knowledge; managers should implement a supportive knowledge management culture, norms and practices that build trust and cooperative environment. In order to build trusted and cooperative environment, the mangers should take a serious action to encourage social interaction where all employees can feel protected when sharing their knowledge through frequent informal and formal meeting as well as mentoring interventions. Secondly, the results of this study showed that management support has a positive significant influence on knowledge sharing. This implies that employees may share their knowledge to other employee from different nationalities in the presence of management support. In addition, it implies that employees will share their knowledge when they perceive that their managers always set a good example in sharing their knowledge with others. Therefore, managers should care about the knowledge that their employees have and also encourage them to share their knowledge with others irrespective of their nationalities.
In sum, this study was conducted among employees from different nationalities, and the results of this study showed that trust and management support had a positive influence on knowledge sharing. These results agree with the results of previous studies which were conducted on employees with the same nationality. This may suggest that the influence of trust and management support on knowledge sharing were the same among the employees whether they are from same nationality or multinational. On the contrary, the results showed insignificant relations between mutual reciprocity, self-efficacy and altruism on knowledge sharing in the study, despite the fact that previous studies had found these factors to be significant with knowledge sharing among employees from same nationality.
Therefore, we consider it reasonable to say that, the factors that affect knowledge sharing among employees from the same nationality were different from the factors that affect knowledge sharing among employees from different nationalities. As stated earlier, culture and religion could be the two major reasons that could probably influence the level of knowledge sharing among these employees of multi-nationalities. For instance, respondents from some nationalities were known for their individualistic culture and confident behaviour in the workplace could probably cause the results of the findings to be insignificant but if the study was conducted among such employees of that nationality alone, there is high tendency that the result would be significant.
Conclusion and recommendations for future research
This study attempted to fill the gap in the current literature by examining the factors that influence knowledge sharing among employees of multi-nationalities. The results of this study indicated that trust and management support have an influence on knowledge sharing. In addition, trust is considered as the factor that contributed the most to knowledge sharing. Taking these factors into consideration can enhance the success of knowledge management initiatives in the organization.
As mentioned earlier, this study was conducted in an organization with multi-nationalities employees. Conducting the research in only one organization gives a limited room for results to be generalized. For that reason, it is recommended that the research could be enhanced by extending the scope of the study to other organizations in other regions of the world. More importantly, we have suggested that some factors that affect knowledge sharing among employees from the same nationality would differ from the factors that affect knowledge sharing among employees from different nationalities. Since this suggestion is based on our proposition, it needs to be validated. Therefore, future studies may conduct a meta-analysis of knowledge sharing literature that were conducted in difference cultures (e.g. Western culture, Middle East culture, Africa culture) to identify the different factors influencing knowledge sharing and subject them to further empirical validation.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the reviewer, who has provided comments and suggestions to impove the manuscript.