Psychological Contract, Reciprocal Preference and Knowledge Sharing Willingness

Abstract

The paper has undertaken field investigation on 370 knowledge workers in knowledge-based industries which are located in Pearl River Delta region by structured questionnaire, and verifies that the different influence of psychological contract and reciprocal preference on knowledge sharing willingness, and further confirms that the reciprocal preference plays an intermediary in the relationship between psychological contract and knowledge sharing willingness. The result of analysis shows that: 1) Transactional psychological contract has a negative effect on knowledge sharing; 2) Relational psychological contract has a significant positive effect on knowledge sharing; 3) Developmental psychological contract only has a significant negative effect on the explicit knowledge sharing; 4) The reciprocal preference plays an intermediary role in the relationship between transactional psychological contract, relational psychological contract.