Employees’ trust and their knowledge sharing and integration: the mediating roles of organizational identification and organization-based self-esteem

Abstract

We propose that the effect of trust on knowledge sharing (KS) and knowledge integration (KI) is mediated by organizational identification (OI) and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). We focus on the relationship among different foci of trust and take into consideration that trust is a culturally dependent variable. We draw from a large-scale questionnaire survey with 50 Chinese companies and find support for our hypotheses in general. The study finds that employees’ trust within the organization is a multifaceted construct that includes their trust in the organization, trust in the supervisor and trust in peers. Trust with these different foci positively impact KS and KI. However, such effects are largely indirect and we find support for our expectation that OI and OBSE function as mediators. We conclude that trust in itself is a precondition but not sufficient condition for the actualization of KS and KI.

Keywords:

• trust
• knowledge sharing
• knowledge integration
• organizational identification
• organization-based self-esteem

Acknowledgements

The paper is a product of project ‘The effects of typical cultural factors (phenomena) on firms’ knowledge sharing and integration and their management’ supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (serial no. 70971117).