Trust in management and knowledge sharing: The mediating effects of fear and knowledge documentation

By Birgit Renzl. 2008

618 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Knowledge sharing within and between teams is of vital importance for organizations. The influence of interpersonal trust in general and trust in management in particular on knowledge sharing is evident. However, it is not clear how the relationship between interpersonal trust and knowledge sharing works. This study provides a better understanding of that relationship by demonstrating that fear of losing one's unique value and knowledge documentation have a mediating effect on the relationship between trust in management and knowledge sharing. Specifically, trust in management increases knowledge sharing through reducing fear of losing one's unique value and improving willingness to document knowledge. These findings have important implications at both a managerial and theoretical level. For managers, this paper emphasizes the individual's central role in the knowledge sharing process in terms of knowledge documentation and fear of losing one's unique value. On the theoretical level, this study provides empirical evidence for two mechanisms that help explain the effect of trust in management on knowledge sharing. In future research, this study could be extended to include other psychosocial phenomena that enable knowledge sharing in organizations.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Communication, Information Systems and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/99987efb39044d6a125a8620f09b13879208ff2d

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Citations in the corpus

Leadership and trust: Their effect on knowledge sharing and team performance (2010, background): “Research has demonstrated the positive direct effects of leadership (Srivastava et al., 2006) and trust (Dirks, 1999; Kimmel et al.,1980; Renzl, 2008) on team knowledge sharing.”
Cultural differences, convergence, and crossvergence as explanations of knowledge transfer in international acquisitions (2010, background): “A lack of trust can also increase fear of exploitation (Renzl, 2008; Zaheer, McEvily, & Perrone, 1998), which Empson (2000) identifies as an important reason for hostility to knowledge transfer on the part of employees.”
Collaborative green innovation in emerging countries: a social capital perspective (2014, background): “Previous studies have shown that strong ties influence the level of knowledge exchange between actors (Renzl, 2008).”
Personality traits, affective commitment, documentation of knowledge, and knowledge sharing (2011, methodology): “This scale has been used and tested on other studies and contexts and proved to be highly reliable (Mooradian, Renzl, and Matzler 2006; Renzl 2008).”
Leadership Styles in Relation to Employees’ Trust and Organizational Change Capacity (2016, background): “Previous literature shows that employees trust in their leadership can lead toward desirable outcomes, such as a higher level of performance (Neves & Caetano, 2009) and greater exchange of ideas and knowledge (Renzl, 2008).”
Knowledge management and measurement: a critical review (2013, background): “The main reason for such knowledge ‘‘hoarding’’ is people’s fear of losing their ‘‘unique value’’ that would reduce their chances of promotion and increase those of others with who they have shared their knowledge (Renzl, 2008; Hislop, 2009).”
Paternalistic leadership and employee voice: Does information sharing matter? (2014, background): “Some prior studies have revealed that information sharing does not always lead to positive employee work outcomes and voice in organizations by itself (Randel and Ranft, 2007; Renzl, 2008).”
Expatriates managers’ cultural intelligence as promoter of knowledge transfer in multinational companies (2018, neutral): “The concept of KT is used in knowledge management literature to represent the formally organized activity of transferring knowledge from source to recipient within the specific boundaries of the organization (Renzl, 2008; Szulanski, 1996).”
Organizational trust and performance: Is organizational learning capability a missing link? (2013, background): “An individual’s faith in another’s benevolence and integrity increases that individual’s willingness to take risks by cooperating and sharing valuable knowledge with others (Renzl, 2008).”
Knowledge sharing and group cohesiveness on performance: An empirical study of technology R&D teams in Taiwan (2009, background): “Renzl (2008) reported that trust can increase knowledge sharing in knowledge-intensive teams.”
A qualitative meta-analysis of trust in supervisor-subordinate relationships (2015, background): “Trust also influences how knowledge is managed within the organisation, as trust enhances the willingness to document existing knowledge (Renzl, 2008) and disseminate knowledge sharing within teams (Lee et al.”
Innovative behaviour: how much transformational leadership do you need? (2018, neutral): “In addition, some employees are reluctant to give up unique knowledge because they may lose their performance advantage in the workplace (Renzl, 2008).”
The Influence of Project Commitment and Team Commitment on the Relationship between Trust and Knowledge Sharing in Project Teams (2017, background): “…sharing exist (e.g., Bakker, Leenders, Gabbay, Kratzer, & van Engelen, 2006; Ozlati, 2015), and more research is needed to identify and investigate the potential mechanisms through which trust may influence knowledge sharing (Chowdhury, 2005; Mayer & Gavin, 2005; Renzl, 2008; Wang & Noe, 2010).”
Forecasting: theory and practice (2020, background): “, 2019), (ii) knowledge sharing (Özer et al., 2011; Renzl, 2008) and transparency of forecasting methods, assumptions and data (Önkal et al.”