A measure of knowledge sharing behavior: scale development and validation

Abstract

The concept of knowledge sharing is getting more and more attention in the research and practice of knowledge management. It is necessary to develop relevant performance assessment and reward systems to encourage people's knowledge sharing behaviors (KSBs). Till now, little effort has been put into developing a valid and reliable measure of KSB. The primary purpose of this study is to develop a new measure of KSB with desirable psychometric properties – a well-developed KSB scale with a sufficient level of reliability and validity. This main objective was achieved by using the following procedures: (1) specify domain of construct, (2) generate scale items, (3) purify scale, and (4) validate scale. The new KSB scale developed in this study is a 4-dimensional, 28-item, 5-response choice frequency scale. The scale includes written contributions, organizational communications, personal interactions, and communities of practices dimensions. The results provided evidence of the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the KSB scale.

Keywords:

• knowledge sharing
• measurement
• performance management
• knowledge management practice

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jialin Yi

About the author

Jialin Yi, Ph.D. Senior E-learning Instructional Designer. She got her doctoral degree from the Instructional Systems Technology department at Indiana University Bloomington, where she also taught computer skills courses for 3 years. Her research interests are knowledge management, performance evaluation and improvement, training techniques, instructional design, and distance learning. Jialin earned a master of science in Instructional Technology from Indiana University Bloomington, a master of management in Industrial Engineering and a bachelor of engineering in International Trade from Xi’an Jiaotong University in China. She also worked in Agilent Technologies as an E-Learning Specialist for 15 months. She has been working in Northwestern Memorial Hospital as a Senior E-Learning Instructional Designer since March 2007. She had academic and practical experience in areas of economics, management, industrial engineering, and education.