Mechanisms for sharing knowledge in project-based organizations

Organizations need to effectively combine and utilize knowledge resources that are distributed amongst the employees and groups in the firm. This paper examines the use of knowledge-sharing mechanisms to leverage the learning, experience and expertise of employees accumulated across projects. I specify a framework that classifies the knowledge-sharing mechanisms used by project-based organizations. Prior research tends to examine only one dimension of knowledge-sharing mechanisms – personalization versus codification. Personalization mechanisms are often assumed to be more ad hoc and informal, and codification mechanisms are assumed to be formal and involve the use of electronic databases. In this paper, personalization versus codification and individualization versus institutionalization are highlighted as two distinct dimensions of knowledge-sharing mechanisms. Individualized knowledge-sharing mechanisms are informal and unstructured, while institutionalized knowledge-sharing mechanisms are formal and embedded in organizational routines and structure. A framework is presented to show how the two dimensions interact. Based on empirical case studies in two project-based organizations, the paper examines if there are suitable configurations of knowledge-sharing mechanisms for organizations with different characteristics. The study contributes to research by providing a more nuanced classification of knowledge-sharing mechanisms, and provides guidance to managers about the types of knowledge-sharing mechanisms that should be adopted based on the size, geographical dispersion and task nature of organizations.     

Self-interest and knowledge-sharing intentions: the impacts of transformational leadership climate and HR practices

The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the roles of transformational leadership (TFL) climate and HR practices in influencing the relationship between self-interest and employees' intention to share knowledge from a multilevel perspective. Results supported the hypotheses that TFL climate and self-interest were associated with employees' intention to share knowledge. TFL climate increased this intention partially by mitigating the negative impact of self-interest. Further, the results indicated that HR practices such as team-based job design and knowledge-sharing incentives moderated the relationship between self-interest and the intention to share knowledge.     

Human resource practices and individual knowledge-sharing behavior – an empirical study for Taiwanese R&D professionals

Knowledge sharing is of central importance for the research and development (R&D) process. Because the process is extremely complicated and an employee possesses expertise only in a specific area, knowledge will not be available to others until the owner makes the objects of the knowledge available. It is, therefore, valuable to investigate how R&D professionals share knowledge with one another. This study explores the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and individual knowledge sharing in Taiwan's high-tech industries. The cross-sectional dataset comes from a sample of 368 R&D professionals from nine different high-tech companies. The findings indicate that the factor representing the perceived self-efficacy of knowledge sharing plays a very important role in the integrated knowledge-sharing model we developed. R&D professionals who believe that sharing will influence their performance will be more willing to share knowledge, and thus an effective sharing of knowledge will be more likely to take place. The results also show that HR practices, incentive compensation plans, performance appraisal systems, and face-to-face communication foster knowledge sharing among R&D professionals through the mediation of perceived self-efficacy and the willingness of knowledge sharing.     

Dual Credit Markets and Household Usage to Finance: Evidence from a Representative Chinese Household Survey

Using a new and representative data set of Chinese household finance, we document household usage and costs of finance, along with their correlates. As in many developing countries, informal credit is a crucial element of household finance, and interest‐free informal loans based on reciprocal personal relationships are highly prevalent in our sample. Not surprisingly, wealth tends to be associated with greater usage of both formal and informal finance. Political connections, extensive social networks and certain household demographic characteristics (such as size) are all positively associated with formal or informal credit usage (or both). Overall, our findings show signs that a dual credit market is emerging in China, with the poor, politically unconnected, and those with larger family sizes still heavily reliant on informal finance, most of which are interest‐free, while younger, wealthier households with better political connections and financial knowledge are increasingly using formal finance.     

Trustworthiness, Risk, and the Transfer of Tacit and Explicit Knowledge Between Alliance Partners

abstract    The transfer of knowledge in alliances entails risk to partners, whose willingness to accept it presumably relies on the trustworthiness that they perceive in their partners. We investigate the extent to which the perceptions of trustworthiness and the willingness to take risk determine the transfer of knowledge between alliance partners and their ultimate impact on alliance success. The results show that the transfer of tacit versus explicit knowledge have very different trust and risk profiles. Whereas explicit knowledge is closely associated with the firm's willingness to take risk, tacit knowledge is intimately related to high trustworthiness. The results support the important role of trust and the transfer of tacit knowledge on the success of learning alliances.     

Trust,individualism and job characteristics as predictors of employee preference for teamwork

Employee resistance has long been recognized as a key constraint on the success of organizational change initiatives. However, it is only recently that employee attitudes towards working in teams has been specifically investigated as a factor influencing team effectiveness. Using data from 218 employees in 40 self-managing work teams, we examined the relationship between trust, individualism, job characteristics and team members' attitudes towards teamwork. Providing a partial test of Mayer et al.'s (1995) relational model of trust, the results indicate that the two situational forms of trust (trust in co-workers and trust in management) were stronger predictors of an employee's preference for teamwork than propensity to trust. Trust in co-workers was found to partially mediate the relationship between a person's propensity to trust strangers and their preference for working in a team. The importance of considering the dispositional variables of propensity to trust and individualism as factors that influence an employee's preference for teamwork, as well as their trust in management, trust in co-workers and their opportunity for skill utilization are discussed.     

Hyperlinked actors in the global knowledge communities and diffusion of innovation tools in nascent industrial field

Innovation is accomplished through collaborations of thousands of researchers embedded in a growing international knowledge community, where some hyperlinked actors can strongly impact the diffusion of innovation tools within the community. Few extant studies have empirically inspected the following issues which govern the influence of hyperlinked actors: (1) how the heterogeneity in their actor attributes regulates the volume of their influences; (2) how the nature of connectivity of these actors impacts the volume of their influences. Our current study intends to address this gap by examining the diffusion of innovation tools among life scientists around the world in a time span of 16 years, and we find that for hyperlinked scientists: (1) heavy usage and high variety of usage behaviors have stronger relationship with diffusion rate than light usage and low variety of usage; (2) light usage and high variety usage behaviors have stronger relationship with extent of diffusion than heavy usage and low variety usage; (3) international links have stronger relationship with both the rate and extent of diffusion than domestic links. Our work contributes to innovation research by providing a sharper understanding on the social contagion mechanism in innovation diffusion within global knowledge communities.     

Gainsharing and knowledge sharing: the effects of labour–management co-operation

We compare patterns of employee knowledge sharing in the form of suggestions for reducing costs and improving productivity submitted as part of a gainsharing reward system in two organizations. Combining insights from recent studies that use employee risk sharing and organizational learning frameworks to understand how gainsharing programmes work, we propose that employees' willingness to share high-risk (second-order-learning) knowledge with management is affected by the degree of labour–management co-operation and trust. Specifically, we hypothesize that union support and involvement in gainsharing affects employee knowledge sharing by increasing employees' initial acceptance of the compensation risk associated with gainsharing and by facilitating employee willingness to take on additional compensation and employment risk over time. We test these hypotheses using time series data on employee suggestions and gainsharing performance at two locations with similarly structured gainsharing plans but different levels of labour–management co-operation. The results generally support our hypotheses. We conclude by considering the implications of these results for gainsharing design and implementation as well as the broader implications of the effect of HR practices on employee knowledge sharing and knowledge management in organizations.     

知识密集型企业内部知识共享模型研究

根据知识密集型企业内部知识的本体特征,分别从业务流程、人力资源培训、非正式学习三个维度对知识共享进行了研究,论述了企业在各个维度的知识共享实践活动及其障碍、过程、意义,最终提出了知识密集型企业内部知识共享模型。     

THE IMPACT OF LABOR MARKET REGULATION ON EMPLOYMENT IN LOW‐INCOME COUNTRIES: A META‐ANALYSIS

Controversy over labor market policy often centers on achieving a balance between preventing worker exploitation, and avoiding loss of productivity or employment through excessive regulation. Although the literature documenting the impact of labor market regulation on employment is extensive, there is a dearth of evidence on the impact of such policies in low‐income countries (LICs). Since it is easier for workers, especially women, to slip into the informal sector in LICs, regulations are likely to have stronger impacts on formal employment in these countries (but lower impacts on unemployment). We systematically reviewed available research from countries that are, or were until recently, LICs. Most studies document that more stringent labor regulations are associated with lower formal sector employment and higher informal sector employment. We also conducted a metaregression analysis of the impact of minimum wages on formal and informal employment. After controlling for publication bias, higher minimum wages are associated with lower formal employment and a higher share of informal workers.     

Knowledge, trust and recourse: imperfect substitutes as sources of assurance in emerging economies

Uncertainty prevents voluntary interactions, but institutions of trust and/or recourse can substitute for knowledge by making promises relatively credible. Trust and various sources of recourse are imperfect substitutes, however, as demonstrated by consideration of the trade-offs between trust based on repeated dealings, recourse to informal private sanctions such as reputation threats, ostracism sanctions and third-party dispute resolution through formal commercial organizations operating under customary law, and the state's coercive legal system. The problems of knowledge and interest imply that, though not perfect, private sources of trust and recourse are superior in emerging markets to state-provided recourse.     

Human resource control in MNCs: a study of the factors influencing the use of formal and informal control mechanisms

This study tests the effects of different internal and external factors on Multinational Corporations' (MNCs) use of formal versus informal mechanisms to control their human resources. Responses to a survey of 74 General Managers (GMs) of US subsidiaries in Mexico were used to test the hypotheses. The use of formal and informal mechanisms of control was associated with the extent to which the MNC had a global strategy as well as with the strength of localization forces such as local dependence and local regulations. Level of employee education, a subsidiary characteristic, also predicted the extent to which MNCs used informal control mechanisms. Most importantly, the results suggest that, even though they share some antecedents, each type of control mechanism, namely formal and informal, has a different set of internal and external antecedents. Indeed, our data hint that informal and formal control mechanisms are not mutually exclusive and that, on the contrary, they can fruitfully co-exist because they satisfy different internal and external demands.     

Tactics of speaking up: The roles of issue importance,perceived managerial openness,and managers' positive mood

Extant voice research has focused mainly on the conditions under which employees speak up, but we have limited knowledge about how employees speak up. This study examines voice tactics or the various ways in which employees express concerns to or share suggestions with their managers. Based on the notion that voice is a deliberative behavior, we draw upon a cost–benefit framework and propose that voice tactics are influenced by messages' characteristics and managers' stable and temporal characteristics. Specifically, we examine the joint effects of issue importance, perceived managerial openness, and managers' positive mood on employees' public (vs. private) and formal (vs. informal) voice tactics. Across two independent studies, our findings demonstrate that employees tend to use public channels and formal procedures only when three conditions are met simultaneously: (a) the issue is important, (b) managers are perceived as being open to employees' voice, and (c) managers are in a positive mood at the time of voicing. In addition, we found that speaking up via public channels or formal procedures is positively related to the success of voice.     

Formal and Informal Corruption Environments and Multinational Enterprise Social Irresponsibility

Using an institutional theory framework we theorize, hypothesize, and empirically show that higher levels of formal and informal corruption environments found in a firm's operating portfolio are related to higher levels of corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR). Failing to consider corruption's informal dimension leads to potentially false perceptions about a multinational enterprise's (MNE) operating environment, particularly when the formal dimension is low but the informal corruption dimension is high, as is the case in about one third of our sample. Including the informal corruption environment component provides additional explanatory power over the formal corruption environment alone in predicting CSiR and yields a superior understanding of both the formal and informal dimensions of the corruption institutional environment's influence on corporate social irresponsibility levels of MNEs. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.     

最低工资对正规部门、非正规部门工资和就业的影响

本文根据是否遵守最低工资标准,将劳动部门分为正规部门和非正规部门。利用中国健康与营养调查（CHNS）微观数据,运用固定效应模型和Multinomial Logit模型,本文实证研究了2004年以来,最低工资对正规部门和非正规部门工资和就业的影响。研究发现：最低工资每提高1%,正规部门工资会增加0.5%,非正规部门平均工资下降统计不显著,而处于最低工资线附近的非正规部门劳动者工资下降0.77%;最低工资提高使得失业者向非正规部门流动,而非正规部门劳动者向正规部门流动,最终将有利于劳动者在正规部门就业。因此,政府在制定最低工资制度时应全面考虑最低工资标准作用效果的部门差异。     

基于客户知识管理的客户意愿分析

客户参与知识交换和知识共享的意愿决定了企业能否获取和充分利用客户知识。而客户意愿由其所能获得的价值决定。运用博弈论的方法,分别分析了知识交换和知识共享中不同情况下的客户意愿,特别讨论了知识共享不同效应大小对客户意愿的影响。     

Neighborhood effect on stock price comovement

We investigate how the geographic distance between firms’ headquarters affects their stock price comovement. Our results show that a firm's stock return has stronger comovement with the returns of nearby firms than with those of distant firms. Being in the same state and/or in the same industry strengthens the return comovement, but does not substitute for the negative effect of geographic distance on price comovement. Firms of similar share price and size also show stronger return comovement, but these factors do not mitigate the negative distance impact. Consistent with investor home bias and neighborhood effect literature, our results suggest that investors’ preference for local stocks and their interactions lead to correlated trading in local stocks and therefore stronger local price comovement.     

团队协作中成员间知识共享激励研究

针对团队协作中成员之间知识共享存在的激励和绩效考核等问题,运用委托代理理论构建了一个知识共享的激励模型,并由此设计出相应的产出分配方案,这对解决团队成员知识共享活动的绩效考核和薪酬方案设计提供了依据。     

Why does formal mentoring matter? The mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating role of power distance orientation in the Chinese context

Formal mentoring programs continue to gain popularity within various organizations due to their positive impact on protégés' career successes. However, to date, relevant research has focused on the benefits of informal mentoring relationships. To narrow the literature gap, this study was conducted to examine whether, how and when the amount of formal mentoring provided by mentors influenced protégés' work attitudes. Based on 208 formal mentor–protégé dyads from the People's Republic of China, we found that the amount of formal mentoring provided by mentors related positively to protégés' affective commitment and related negatively to turnover intention. Furthermore, perceived psychological safety of protégés partially mediated the relationship between the amount of formal mentoring and affective commitment, whereas it completely mediated the relationship between the amount of formal mentoring and turnover intention. Finally, protégés' power distance orientation moderated the relationship between the amount of formal mentoring and perceived psychological safety. Additionally, implications for research and practice from our findings are discussed.     

Expanding leadership diversity through formal mentoring programs

To attract and retain people, it is essential that organizations design and successfully implement programs and processes that develop people and nurture their talents. For those who aspire to a leadership role, the opportunity to engage in mentoring relationships with senior‐level leaders is a powerful way to accelerate growth. In the majority of informal mentoring relationships, mentors and protégés share similar racial, gender, and cultural backgrounds. Senior leaders in most large organizations are still primarily white males. As a result, it can be difficult for people from diverse backgrounds who aspire to higher level leadership roles to find senior executives with whom they can develop a mentoring relationship. To address this challenge, some organizations have implemented formal mentoring programs that are specifically designed to facilitate development of people from diverse backgrounds. Unfortunately, previous research studies conducted on the impact of formal mentoring relationships have shown that these programs do not consistently achieve the desired outcomes. The change intervention described in this article suggests that formal mentoring programs can significantly influence the movement of protégés from diverse backgrounds into higher level leadership positions.