Public Service Motivation, Organizational Social Capital, and Knowledge Sharing in the Korean Public Sector

ABSTRACT

This article investigates whether public service motivation (PSM) and organizational social capital predict knowledge sharing in the public sector. The hypothesized relationships in the proposed model are verified with the online survey data of 506 public employees in Korea. The test results show that the two dimensions of PSM (attraction to public service and commitment to public values) and the trust component of organizational social capital are both positively related to knowledge sharing in the Korean public sector, and that the associability component of organizational social capital is indirectly associated with knowledge sharing through its influence on PSM. The article discusses the ways that PSM and organizational social capital may contribute to overcome the social dilemma of knowledge sharing in public organizations. It also suggests that there is need for further research on the individual dimensions of the PSM construct.

KEYWORDS:

• knowledge sharing
• organizational social capital
• public service motivation
• quantitative methods

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2015S1A5A2A01011760).

Notes on contributors

Sangmook Kim

Sangmook Kim is a professor in the Department of Public Administration at Seoul National University of Science & Technology.