Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Halimah Abdul Manaf, Steven Armstrong and Alan Lawton
tasks includes how to perform well in specific tasks. Managing o<strong>the</strong>rs involves <strong>the</strong> required skills and
knowledge for managing subordinates and interacting with peers.
Tacit knowledge related to self is concerned with knowledge about <strong>the</strong> relative importance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
tasks one faces, efficient ways <strong>of</strong> approaching work and knowledge about <strong>the</strong> motivation skills
required in order to maximize one’s accomplishments (Wagner & Stenberg 1985).
H3: There is a positive relationship between managing self and effective knowledge
sharing practices.
Tacit knowledge related to managing o<strong>the</strong>rs refers to knowledge about managing subordinates and
social relationships (Wagner & Stenberg 1985).
H4:There is a positive relationship between managing o<strong>the</strong>rs and effective knowledge
sharing practices.
Tacit knowledge related to managing tasks refers to knowledge about how to establish careers, how
to enhance reputations, how to reflect organizational values and how to convince superiors about
ideas or products (Wagner & Stenberg 1985).
H5:There is a positive relationship between managing task and effective knowledge
sharing practices.
3.4 Personality Traits
Previous research has demonstrated that personality traits are linked to important organizational
outcomes, particularly job performance, training success, self assessment, rates <strong>of</strong> pay, career
development and leadership efficacy (Barrick et al. 2005). However, not all employees are willing to
share personal knowledge due to individual differences (Cabrera 2002). Research suggests that
psychological variables such as self efficacy, organizational commitment, cognitive style (Armstrong
et al. 2002) and personality have a significant impact on people’s tendency to participate in voluntary
knowledge sharing.
Personality can be defined as a combination <strong>of</strong> different traits or personal characteristics that cause
people to behave in different ways (Tokar et al. 1998). The traits most frequently raised for discussion
are labelled extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to
experiences (John et al. 2008). The person labelled as an extravert will typically be talkative,
energetic and assertive. Whilst <strong>the</strong> person labelled as being agreeable will typically be sympa<strong>the</strong>tic,
affectionate and kind. The term conscientiousness is used to describe a person who is organized,
truthful and has <strong>the</strong> capacity to plan ahead. Neuroticism/emotional instability results when a person
is tense, moody and anxious. Finally, <strong>the</strong> capacity to be open to experience involves traits such as
having wide interests, and <strong>the</strong> ability to be imaginative and insightful.
Personality traits are also believed to be a determinant <strong>of</strong> an individual’s propensity to engage in
knowledge sharing (Martzler et al. 2008).
H6: Personality traits moderate <strong>the</strong> effects <strong>of</strong> knowledge sharing practices on individual
performance.
Successful managers are known to have higher levels <strong>of</strong> tacit knowledge and <strong>the</strong>re is some support
for <strong>the</strong> idea that this may be due to personality traits (Tan & Libby 1997).
H7: Personality traits moderate <strong>the</strong> relationship between managerial tacit knowledge and
individual performance.
Collectively, <strong>the</strong>se seven hypo<strong>the</strong>ses lead us to present our research framework for <strong>the</strong> study shown
in Figure 1.
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