Influential individual factors of knowledge sharing behavior in Hong Kong construction teams

Abstract

This exploratory study employs social exchange theory to investigate individual factors that affect people's knowledge sharing behaviour in Hong Kong construction teams. This study supports the view that knowledge is embedded in individual mind, highly personal and context based. Thus people may be reluctant to share knowledge due to potential costs involved. Given that knowledge sharing is social exchange behaviour, people may be motivated to share knowledge if they perceive that benefits obtained from knowledge sharing are more valuable than the associated costs. So individual factors are analyzed from the perspectives of cost factors and benefit factors. This exploratory study is carried out with a qualitative approach. Semi--structured interviews are conducted with professionals from a large local construction company. The transcripts of interviews are analyzed using the content analysis technique. The results show that people share their knowledge for both intrinsic benefits (e.g. enjoyment, knowledge self-efficacy) and extrinsic benefits (e.g. monetary rewards, knowledge feedback). Perceived costs involved in knowledge sharing include time cost and losing face.