Individual Knowledge Sharing: A Case Study

The individual knowledge sharing intensity of members of global teams has probably never been as important as it is in today's global world, where speed, flexibility and adaptability are key to success. The strategic importance of individual knowledge sharing and its relationship with environmental and organizational factors have been well documented in prior literature. Moreover, the effects of individual factors (i.e., personality) on knowledge sharing have not been adequately described empirically. Therefore, this study focuses on the analysis of personality traits as antecedents for the individual’s knowledge sharing activities in a global context. In addressing the notion of individual knowledge sharing in a global context, I propose that

The approach that firms are taking to respond to this globalization and time-based competition is the creation of global teams (Gluesing & Gibson, 2004; Grant, 1996; Hansen & Nohria, 2004). Global teams, bring together people from different nationalities and cultures to work across borders on a shared goal (Batarseh, 2017; Gluesing & Gibson, 2004; Govindarajan & Gupta, 2001). This practice of connecting and engaging employees globally enables a greater agility and adaptability of the firm (Gronwald, 2017; Sarker & Sarker, 2009). As a result, the companies can compete on a global scale, dealing simultaneously with different customer demands and reduce the time to market (Canney Davison & Ward, 1999; McDonough et al., 2001). Such opportunities are expected because of the variety of perspectives inherent in the heterogeneous composition of the team (Watson & Kumar, 1992). In addition, the technological evolution has almost vanished time and distance barriers, facilitating the creation of global teams, capable to outperform the traditional ones (Siebdrat et al., 2009). Despite the numerous advantages of global teams, companies are facing difficulties to establish a collaborative environment of employees sharing their knowledge (McDonough et al., 2001). When

Numerous theories about how to foster individual knowledge sharing in global teams by means of different information technologies or management styles has been developed (McDonough et al., 2001). Furthermore, organizations have invested large economic amounts to ensure a collaborative environment but nevertheless companies still fail to ensure individual knowledge exchange (Babcock, 2004). This failure may be partially due to a lack of consideration about how and which individual characteristics influence knowledge sharing (Carter & Scarbrough, 2001). Only limited research has considered the influence of individual differences, i.e. personality traits on knowledge sharing (Matzler et al., 2008) although personality traits represent robust predictors of workplace behaviors (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Companies that can identify and predict which individuals will be more likely to share their knowledge with other team members in global collaboration will be able to leverage their capabilities and performance (Hansen & Nohria, 2004). The challenge remains in anticipating, whether or not knowledge employees in global teams are keen to share their knowledge with others or not. Therefore, this paper represents an attempt to fill this gap, providing empirical evidence for the influence of specific personality