TY - JOUR
T1 - The influence of psychological safety and confidence in knowledge on employee knowledge sharing
AU - Siemsen, Enno
AU - Roth, Aleda V.
AU - Balasubramanian, Sridhar
AU - Anand, Gopesh
PY - 2009/6/1
Y1 - 2009/6/1
N2 - This research empirically examines the influence of psychological safety on knowledge sharing among coworkers in manufacturing and service operations contexts. Reconciling conflicting findings in the literature, we demonstrate that whereas psychological safety is an important antecedent of knowledge sharing, the relationship between psychological safety and knowledge sharing is moderated by the level of confidence that employees have in what they know. The greater this confidence, the lesser is the importance of psychological safety in facilitating knowledge sharing. Linking this result to social network theory, we find that psychological safety increases with the frequency of communication among coworkers and that the confidence of employees in their knowledge is related to the codifiability of the knowledge involved. We further investigate direct and indirect antecedents of psychological safety. This research offers insights into actions that managers can take to enhance psychological safety and, consequently, motivate their employees to share knowledge.
AB - This research empirically examines the influence of psychological safety on knowledge sharing among coworkers in manufacturing and service operations contexts. Reconciling conflicting findings in the literature, we demonstrate that whereas psychological safety is an important antecedent of knowledge sharing, the relationship between psychological safety and knowledge sharing is moderated by the level of confidence that employees have in what they know. The greater this confidence, the lesser is the importance of psychological safety in facilitating knowledge sharing. Linking this result to social network theory, we find that psychological safety increases with the frequency of communication among coworkers and that the confidence of employees in their knowledge is related to the codifiability of the knowledge involved. We further investigate direct and indirect antecedents of psychological safety. This research offers insights into actions that managers can take to enhance psychological safety and, consequently, motivate their employees to share knowledge.
KW - Auxiliary network theory
KW - Knowledge sharing
KW - Operational choices
KW - Psychological safety
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=68349108015&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=68349108015&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1287/msom.1080.0233
DO - 10.1287/msom.1080.0233
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:68349108015
SN - 1523-4614
VL - 11
SP - 429
EP - 447
JO - Manufacturing and Service Operations Management
JF - Manufacturing and Service Operations Management
IS - 3
ER -