Confucian Values, Social Fear, and Knowledge Sharing in Korean Organizations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of Confucian values, social fear and organizational knowledge sharing culture on the knowledge sharing intention of Information Systems (IS) professionals in an East Asian context. We surveyed 187 professionals working in IS in South Korean companies and applied partial least squares structural equation modeling for testing our hypotheses. The results show that Confucian values negatively influence knowledge sharing intention by increasing social fear. Conversely, knowledge sharing culture enhances knowledge sharing intention directly, and by mitigating the negative effects of Confucian values and social fear. Thus, while individuals’ reluctance to share knowledge has been conceptualized as a rational cost-benefit process in a Western context, our study shows that negative emotions and the underlying values, which stimulate these emotions, influence knowledge sharing intention in an East Asian context.

KEYWORDS:

• Social fear
• organizational culture
• Confucian values
• knowledge sharing
• East Asia

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this work was published at a conference.

Notes

¹ The term senior in East Asian culture refers to a person in a position of rank. Seniority is established based on education, lineage, tenure, familial relations or age.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Korea University Business School  Research Grant.