What one feels and what one knows: the influence of emotions on attitudes and intentions towards knowledge sharing

What one feels and what one knows: the influence of emotions on attitudes and intentions towards... Purpose – This paper aims to provide theoretical and empirical insight into the relationship between emotions and knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses concerning the influence of pride and empathy on knowledge sharing attitudes and intentions are developed, based on prior research. The hypotheses were tested by means of a survey within the Dutch branch of a global IT organization, in which respondents ( n =252) were asked to evaluate one of four different scenarios, invoking either pride or empathy. Respondents were asked their attitude and intention towards knowledge sharing in the situation sketched in the scenario. Findings – Pride and empathy were found to affect eagerness and willingness to share knowledge. Furthermore, these emotions also influenced knowledge sharing intentions, partly mediated by eagerness and willingness. Both eagerness and willingness mediate the relationship between pride and knowledge sharing intention, whereas only willingness turned out to mediate the relationship between empathy and knowledge sharing. Research limitations/implications – An important limitation is that the scenarios which were used were hypothetical. A suggestion for further research is to conduct a lab experiment (for instance, using a role play situation) in which emotions are manipulated in an interactive setting. Originality/value – Emotions have not been related to knowledge sharing in a systematic way before. By connecting these two areas of research, this study provides new interdisciplinary insights. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Knowledge Management Emerald Publishing

What one feels and what one knows: the influence of emotions on attitudes and intentions towards knowledge sharing

Download PDF
11 pages
Read Article

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/what-one-feels-and-what-one-knows-the-influence-of-emotions-on-sb8g4Haj9r
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1367-3270
DOI
10.1108/13673271211198990
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to provide theoretical and empirical insight into the relationship between emotions and knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses concerning the influence of pride and empathy on knowledge sharing attitudes and intentions are developed, based on prior research. The hypotheses were tested by means of a survey within the Dutch branch of a global IT organization, in which respondents ( n =252) were asked to evaluate one of four different scenarios, invoking either pride or empathy. Respondents were asked their attitude and intention towards knowledge sharing in the situation sketched in the scenario. Findings – Pride and empathy were found to affect eagerness and willingness to share knowledge. Furthermore, these emotions also influenced knowledge sharing intentions, partly mediated by eagerness and willingness. Both eagerness and willingness mediate the relationship between pride and knowledge sharing intention, whereas only willingness turned out to mediate the relationship between empathy and knowledge sharing. Research limitations/implications – An important limitation is that the scenarios which were used were hypothetical. A suggestion for further research is to conduct a lab experiment (for instance, using a role play situation) in which emotions are manipulated in an interactive setting. Originality/value – Emotions have not been related to knowledge sharing in a systematic way before. By connecting these two areas of research, this study provides new interdisciplinary insights.

Journal

Journal of Knowledge Management – Emerald Publishing

Published: Feb 17, 2012

Keywords: Knowledge sharing; Emotions; Attitudes; Intentions; Knowledge management

References

  • Warmth in advertising: measurement, impact, and sequence effects
    Aaker, D.A.; Stayman, D.M.; Hagerty, M.R.
  • Empathy versus pride: the influence of emotional appeals across cultures
    Aaker, J.L.; Williams, P.
  • Social capital: prospects for a new concept
    Adler, P.S.; Kwon, S.‐W.
  • Attitudes, intentions and behavior: a test of some key hypotheses
    Bagozzi, R.P.
  • The role of emotions in marketing
    Bagozzi, R.P.; Gopinath, M.; Nyer, P.U.
  • The moderator‐mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations
    Baron, R.M.; Kenny, D.A.
  • Knowledge and organization: a social‐practice perspective
    Brown, J.S.; Duguid, P.
  • Bridging epistemologies: the generative dance between organizational knowledge and organizational knowing
    Cook, S.; Brown, J.S.
  • User acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models
    Davis, F.D.; Bagozzi, R.P.; Warshaw, P.R.
  • Measuring individual differences in empathy: evidence from a multidimensional approach
    Davis, M.H.
  • Explaining knowledge sharing: the role of team communication styles, job satisfaction and performance beliefs
    De Vries, R.E.; Van den Hooff, B.; De Ridder, J.A.
  • Empathy: conceptualization, measurement and relation to pro‐social behavior
    Eisenberg, N.; Fabes, R.A.
  • Attitude accessibility, attitude‐behavior consistency and the strength of the object‐evaluation association
    Fazio, R.H.; Chen, J.M.; McDonel, E.C.; Sherman, S.J.
  • Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research
    Fishbein, M.; Ajzen, I.
  • Mission impossible? Communicating and sharing knowledge via information technology
    Hislop, D.
  • Knowledge transfer between groups via personnel rotation: effects of social identity and knowledge quality
    Kane, A.A.; Argote, L.; Levine, J.M.
    Bookmark
  • Relationships among attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behavior: a meta‐analysis of past research part 2
    Kim, M.S.; Hunter, J.S.
  • A categorized list of emotion definitions, with suggestions for a consensual definition
    Kleinginna, P.; Kleinginna, A.M.
  • The self in self‐conscious emotions
    Lewis, M.
    Bookmark
  • Culture and the self: implications for cognition, emotion and motivation
    Markus, H.; Kitayama, S.
  • Cultural influences on the perception of emotion
    Matsumoto, D.
  • Reflections of culture: an analysis of Japanese and American advertising appeals
    Mueller, B.
  • Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage
    Nahapiet, J.; Ghoshal, S.
  • Motivation, knowledge transfer and organizational forms
    Osterloh, M.; Frey, B.S.
  • Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models
    Preacher, K.J.; Hayes, A.F.
  • Empathy, emotional expressiveness, and prosocial behavior
    Roberts, W.; Strayer, J.
    Bookmark
  • The self‐conscious emotions: shame, guilt, embarrassment and pride
    Tangney, J.P.
  • Putting the self into self‐conscious emotions: a theoretical model
    Tracy, J.L.; Robins, R.W.
  • Managing knowledge sharing: emergent and engineering approaches
    Van den Hooff, B.; Huysman, M.
    Bookmark
  • A new model for predicting behavioral intentions: an alternative to Fishbein
    Warshaw, P.R.
  • Why should I share? Examining social capital and knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice
    Wasko, M.M.; Faraj, S.
  • Cultivating Communities of Practice
    Wenger, E.; McDermott, R.; Snyder, W.
  • Pride and perseverance: the motivational role of pride
    Williams, L.A.; DeSteno, D.
  • Felt emotions, and verbally communicated emotions: the case of pride
    Zammuner, V.C.
    Bookmark

You’re reading a free preview. Subscribe to read the entire article.

Try 2 weeks free now

DeepDyve is your
personal research library

It’s your single place to instantly
discover and read the research
that matters to you.

Enjoy affordable access to
over 18 million articles from more than
15,000 peer-reviewed journals.

All for just $49/month

Explore the DeepDyve Library

or browse the journals available

Search

Query the DeepDyve database, plus search all of PubMed and Google Scholar seamlessly

Organize

Save any article or search result from DeepDyve, PubMed, and Google Scholar... all in one place.

Access

Get unlimited, online access to over 18 million full-text articles from more than 15,000 scientific journals.

Your journals are on DeepDyve

Read from thousands of the leading scholarly journals from SpringerNature, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford University Press and more.

All the latest content is available, no embargo periods.

See the journals in your area

DeepDyve

Freelancer

DeepDyve

Pro

Price

FREE

$49/month
$360/year

Save searches from
Google Scholar,
PubMed

Create folders to
organize your research

Export folders, citations

Read DeepDyve articles

Abstract access only

Unlimited access to over
18 million full-text articles

Print

20 pages / month

PDF Discount

20% off

Sign up
for free
Start 14 day
Free Trial