Personality traits, affective commitment, documentation of knowledge, and knowledge sharing

Abstract

Managerial influences on knowledge sharing and the importance of knowledge sharing in strategic success of firms have been well studied. Some research and theory have considered the effects of relatively malleable and situation-specific individual characteristics, such as motivation and the perception of vulnerability, on knowledge sharing. Insufficient research has considered the effects of enduring individual differences (i.e. personality traits) on knowledge sharing, although personality traits have been shown to be robust predictors of workplace behaviors, attitudes, and performance. We report a study linking two elemental personality traits, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, to knowledge sharing via affective commitment and documentation of knowledge: Agreeableness influences an individual's affective commitment to the organization; both affective commitment and Conscientiousness predict the documentation of knowledge: and, affective commitment and the documentation of knowledge influence knowledge sharing. These findings integrate the extant, heretofore unrelated bodies of literature on knowledge sharing and on personality traits in personnel selection. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.