Abstract

Employee motivation to share knowledge is widely acknowledged both as an important predictor of knowledge-sharing behaviours and as a challenging factor to manage. In this light, it would be useful to know - will the lack of motivation fully block knowledge sharing, as the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) framework claims, or can one still share their knowledge being unmotivated to do so? In other words, is motivation to share a necessary condition for knowledge sharing? Building on self-determination theory, past research suggested differentiating between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to share, as intrinsic motivation is a stronger predictor of knowledge sharing, and, at the same time, is more difficult to influence by managerial interventions. We do not know if both types of motivation are equally necessary for knowledge sharing to happen, or if, when intrinsic motivation is lacking, extrinsic motivation can compensate for it.

We explore these questions using four datasets (total N = 1351) on organizations from different countries and industry sectors and applying a new methodological technique, Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), specifically designed to test the necessity logic propositions that more conventional methods (e.g., regression) cannot test. Our findings, largely replicated across four samples, demonstrate that intrinsic motivation is a necessary condition for employees to share knowledge, while extrinsic motivation is not. This study contributes to the knowledge management, organizational behaviour and human resource management literature by providing a fine-grained understanding of the role of motivation for knowledge sharing, by empirically testing core assumptions of self-determination theory and AMO framework that have been rarely tested previously, and by demonstrating the additional insights the Necessary Condition Analysis method can provide. Our study also provides important practical insights on what managerial interventions are to be prioritized to avoid a lack of knowledge sharing.