As conveniently utilized knowledge has the strength to influence the business success by creating added value, most companies pointed out 'knowledge management' on acquisition, invention, sharing, and application of knowledge as core elements of produ...
As conveniently utilized knowledge has the strength to influence the business success by creating added value, most companies pointed out 'knowledge management' on acquisition, invention, sharing, and application of knowledge as core elements of producing performance. With regard especially on knowledge sharing among these elements, researches, showing that information exchange within an organization and the increase in the same cooperative activity enhance company's competitiveness, are continually presented.
Many researches tried to reveal the factors that influence on knowledge sharing accordingly. Some, such as 'fairness of distributing compensation', 'knowledge friendly culture', 'trust among members', are considered to be motivation factors on knowledge sharing. These variables are also determined to be major factors that influence the performance as well as motivation factors. However, there are only few researches investigated on their relationship, and now, it is the time to raise the necessity to focus on the relationship among these factors. In addition, although many companies prefer team based operation, which is flexible to the rapid environmental changes, most researches focus on an 'organization' and rarely on a 'team'. Thus, by considering a team according to the current business environment, this research will investigate the relationship among 'fairness of distributing compensation within a team', 'knowledge friendly team culture', 'trust among team members', 'level of knowledge sharing within a team', and 'team performance'.
Especially on the mediation effect, most researches present the result that expects the effect indirectly to determine a static correlation and significance among the variables, but since it is hard to find a research on the actual effect through various research methods of mediation, this will verify the mediation effect among the variables in detail.
Therefore, through this research, as investigating the factors that motivate knowledge sharing within a team and create the performance, it will find a team-based solution that changes team culture positively with continuous educational training and system modification, and at the same time, promotes knowledge sharing and then maximizes the performance. Furthermore, the objective is to present implications for managers to design educational programs, and to make one strategy that must be executed for the maximum performance. In accordance with this objective, this research addresses the following specific problems.
1. Is there significant correlation among team characteristics (fairness of distributing compensation, knowledge friendly team culture, and trust among team members), level of knowledge sharing, and the performance?
2. Does the level of knowledge sharing within a team perform as a mediator when the team characteristics (fairness of distributing compensation, knowledge friendly team culture, and trust among team members) expect the team performance?
2-1. Does the level of knowledge sharing within a team perform as a mediator when the fairness of distributing compensation expects the team performance?
2-2. Does the level of knowledge sharing within a team perform as a mediator when the knowledge friendly team culture expects the team performance?
2-3. Does the level of knowledge sharing within a team perform as a mediator when the trust among team members expects the team performance?
This research conducted a survey of employees at S company, which is managed as a team based organization, and selected samples from 185 employees who completed it sincerely. Inspection tools for fairness of distributing compensation, knowledge friendly team culture, trust among team members, level of knowledge sharing within a team, and the team performance are used as research tools after adaptation. As the analysis method for investigating the relationship among the variables, Baron and Kenny's mediation analysis method is used in order to verify the correlation analysis, the regression analysis, and the mediation effect.
The summary about the result of this research is the following.
First, through the correlation analysis among the variables, the trust among team members showed the most significant correlation with the team performance, and fairness of distributing compensation, knowledge friendly team culture, and the level of knowledge sharing within a team respectively.
Second, mediation analysis method, suggested by Baron and Kenny(1986), is used in order to verify the mediation effect between the fairness of distributing compensation and the level of knowledge sharing within a team regarding the performance. As a result, the fairness of distributing compensation expected the level of knowledge sharing and the performance significantly, and the level of knowledge sharing also expected the performance considerably, and finally this proves that there is a partial mediation effect between them.
Third, Baron and Kenny(1986)'s mediation analysis method is also used for the verification of the mediation effect between knowledge friendly team culture and the level of knowledge sharing within a team regarding the performance. As a result, knowledge friendly team culture expected the level of knowledge sharing and the performance significantly, and the level of knowledge sharing also expected the performance noticeably, and finally this indicates that there is a partial mediation effect between them.
Lastly, utilizing Baron and Kenny(1986)'s mediation analysis method in order to prove the mediation effect between the trust among team members and the level of knowledge sharing within a team regarding the performance shows that the trust among team members expected the level of knowledge sharing and the performance significantly. Also, the level of knowledge sharing expected the performance considerably. As a result, this proves that there is a partial mediation effect among the trust among team members, the level of knowledge sharing within a team, and the team performance.
From the above results it is identified that the level of knowledge sharing is a variable, which partially mediates the fairness of distributing compensation within a team, knowledge friendly team culture, the trust among team members, and the team performance. In addition, when designing business educational programs, the team culture can be influenced positively by several ways such as distributing fair compensation, creating knowledge friendly team culture, and presenting a variety of strategies that can build the trust among team members. Through them, it implies a need to lead in the expansion of knowledge sharing and eventually improvement of team performance. From the above results it is identified that the level of knowledge sharing is a variable, which partially mediates the fairness of distributing compensation within a team, knowledge friendly team culture, the trust among team members, and the team performance. In addition, when designing corporate educational programs, the team culture can be influenced positively by several ways such as distributing fair compensation, creating knowledge friendly team culture, and presenting a variety of strategies that can build the trust among team members. Through them, it implies a need to lead in the expansion of knowledge sharing and eventually improvement of team performance.
This research suggests some points for the following research projects.
First, the sampling targets for this research were limited to 185 employees at S company for the purpose of increasing reliability, but for the general purpose, it needs to support generalization by having more diversified participants in the future research.
Second, this research chose to use a self-report survey method used frequently in the OB(Organizational Behavior) research, but it will be noteworthy to present various results by using other evaluation methods.
Finally, this research verified whether the variable mediates each independent variable and dependent variable. In the later research, by analyzing more variables related to the team characteristics, the process of comparing each variable's effectiveness of knowledge sharing and the performance would help to prioritize when designing corporate educational programs. In addition, more researches will have to be conducted using other different methods to derive the fairness of distributing compensation, knowledge friendly team culture, and the trust among team members that have already verified to have effectiveness on knowledge sharing and the team performance in this research. If such in-depth research can be conducted, it will be possible to present the way of improving team performance effectively when designing corporate educational programs in the future, and to conduct strategic education for the performance improvement with the specific objectives.