SOCIALBEHAVIORANDPERSONALITY, 2010, 38(6), 753-758

Society for PersonalityResearch (Inc.)

DOI 10.2224/sbp.2010.38.6.753

The effect of different motivation factors on

knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior
Wen-Chung Liu
National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC
Chen-Ling Fang
National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
The main purpose in this study was to examine the correlations between knowledge-sharing
motivation, willingness, and behavior of volunteers and paid staff in different types of social
welfare nonprofit organizations. Statistical analysis of empirical data from 375 participants
questionnaires revealed the following results. Only one of the hygiene factors, extrinsic
motivation, was found to be unrelated to willingness to share knowledge. All other hygiene
factors were significantly related to knowledge-sharing willingness behavior, and the
intrinsic motivation factor had the strongest influence on knowledge-sharing willingness and
behavior.
Keywords: extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, knowledge sharing, nonprofit
organization, volunteer.

Different types of organizations have different sources of motivation for

choosing to provide satisfying social services. Nonprofit organization (NPO)
staff members may also differ in their knowledge-sharing willingness and
behavior because of different extrinsic or intrinsic motivation factors. One of the
objectives of social welfare NPOs is to understand the statistical population characteristics of volunteers and social workers. Most of the workers in Taiwans NPO
are female. The flat hierarchy structure of an NPO, and the salary and promotion

Wen-Chung Liu, PhD, Institute of Human Resource Management, National Central University,
Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC; Chen-Ling Fang, Associate Professor, Department of Cooperative
Economics, National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Appreciation is due to anonymous reviewers.
Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Wen-Chung Liu, Institute of Human Resource
Management, National Central University, No. 300 Jhongda Road, Jhongli City, Taoyuan County
32001, Taiwan, ROC. Phone: 886-2-4723431; Fax: 886-3-422742; Email: 944407001@cc.ncu.edu.tw

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Motivation factors and knowledge sharing

opportunities which cannot compete with those of business organizations are the
reasons that men are less willing to work for NPOs. Most workers at NPOs are
between 21 and 30 years old, with 1-5 years service and a university or college
qualification. Many of the long-term workers are retired people. If a more
effective system to retain young, talented people is not set up, then it is difficult
for the institutional knowledge of the NPO to be retained and passed on. Secondly,
researchers should determine, from a knowledge providers perspective, whether
or not different motivational factors create different levels of knowledge-sharing
willingness and behavior. This was the primary objective in this study. However,
even when an organizations members are willing to externalize knowledge by
sharing it, they must actually transmit it to their coworkers in order to make
use of this knowledge. Therefore, the second objective in this study was to
investigate the relationship between knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior.
Motivation can be classified as internal or external motivation, depending on
its source. Internal motivation represents an internal value of an individual
toward the work itself (Deci & Ryan, 1985). External motivation represents an
external value that is not directly related to work itself, but is primarily based on
personal values and expectations (Deci & Ryan). However, internal and external
motivations are not mutually exclusive, and both can exist in an individual at
the same time, at different levels of intensity. Herzberg (2003) identified several
behavioral-based factors that encourage people to work, classifying these as
hygiene factors and motivation factors. From this perspective, an individual is
willing to share knowledge if the reward gained will be bigger than the cost paid
(Davenport & Prusak, 1998). Three kinds of reward factors may be involved:
reputation, mutual benefit, and altruism.
METHOD
Participants
In this study national charities listed in the 2003 Social Welfare Philanthropy
Foundation Directory published by the Taiwanese Department of Social Affairs
were examined. A total of 375 copies of the questionnaire compiled for this
study were mailed to respondents, and 341 copies were returned, five of which
were invalid. In total, 336 valid copies were retained, giving a return rate of
89.6%. Approximately one quarter (23.28%) of the respondents were male and
76.72% were female. The largest age category in the sample was 21 to 30 years
old, accounting for 40.12% of respondents. The largest educational background
category was university or college education, at 57.49%. Within the sample,
55.39% were full-time staff and 36.83% were volunteers with the organizations.
The average length of experience was 1-5 years, accounting for 49.29% of the
sample.

Motivation factors and knowledge sharing

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Measures
In this study a knowledge-sharing motivation scale was used based on the
Work Preference Inventory (WPI) proposed by Amabile, Hennessey, and Tighe
in 1994. To measure the altruistic characteristics of internal motivation, the
altruistic dimension of the Organizational Citizenship Behavior measuring scale
developed by Organ (1998) was used with only slight revision. The researchers
identified mutual benefits of external motivation using the definition of mutual
benefits provided by Davenport and Prusak (1998). The questionnaire used in
this study was aimed at measuring internal motivation (motivation and altruistic
characteristics) and external motivation (hygiene factors, reputation, and mutual
benefits). The scale for measuring willingness to share knowledge was based on
the line of reasoning developed by Senge (1998). This scale contains a total of 10
items, for example I would like to offer a learning opportunity to inexperienced
colleagues. The scale used for measuring knowledge-sharing behavior was
developed by Hooff and Weenen (2004), and the researchers revised it based on
the characteristics of personnel in the NPOs being studied. It consists of 10 items,
for example I often use face-to-face communication to provide colleagues with
knowledge or information needed at work.
The Cronbachs alpha coefficient values were as follows: internal motivation,
= 0.70; external motivation, = 0.66; knowledge-sharing willingness, =
0.83; and knowledge-sharing behavior, = 0.68. In general, the reliability of the
questionnaire was determined to be good.
RESULTs
TABLE 1
Correlation Statistics

Motivator Altruism Hygiene Reputation Reciprocity Willingness Behavior

factors
of
of

knowledge knowledge

sharing
sharing
Willingness of
0.38*** 0.52*** 0.08
knowledge sharing
< .0001 < .0001
Behavior of
0.46*** 0.35*** 0.13*
knowledge sharing < .0001 < .0001 0.0169

0.11*
0.1278
0.24***
<.0001

0.29***
0.0375
0.20***
0.0002

1.00
< .0001
0.38***
< .0001

__
1.00

Note: N = 336, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001, two-tailed tests.

The Pearsons correlation results in Table 1 indicate that, for the participants in
our study, motivation, altruistic characteristics, reputation, mutual benefits, and
knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior were significantly and positively
correlated. Hygiene factors and knowledge-sharing behaviors were also

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Motivation factors and knowledge sharing

significantly correlated. Knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior produced

a correlation coefficient of 0.38. This indicates that the degree of correlation is
relatively low.
Table 2 and Figure 1 show that intrinsic motivation had a greater influence on
knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior than did extrinsic motivation, but
extrinsic motivation (X2) was found to have no direct influence on knowledgesharing willingness and behavior. This implies that internal motivation has a
greater driving force than external motivation. For the impact of willingness of
sharing on sharing behavior, results indicated that when a person is willing to
share, it is possible to advance a step further to produce sharing behavior.
TABLE 2
Path Analysis of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation on Knowledge Sharing
Model Independent Dependent

variable
variable

Path
coefficient

Parameter test
t test (p value)

Model test
F test (p value)

1
Y1

2
Y2

0.49693
-0.06522
0.39113
0.03929
0.18941

8.95 (< .0001**)

-1.17 ( = 0.2410)
6.56 (< .000**)
0.73 ( = 0.4644)
.359 ( = 0.0004**)

46.81
(< .0001**)
42.40
(< .0001**)

X1
X2
X1
X2
Y1

Notes: ** p < .01; two-tailed tests. X1, Intrinsic motivation; X2, Extrinsic motivation;
Y1, willingness of knowledge sharing; Y2, behavior of knowledge sharing;
Path 1: Y1 = 0.49693X1 - 0.06522X2 Path 2: Y2 = 0.39113X1 + 0.03929X1 + 0.18941Y1.

Intrinsic
motivation

0.39113**
0.49693**

Willingness of
knowledge sharing

0.18941**

Behavior of
knowledge sharing

-0.06522
Extrinsic
motivation

0.03929

Figure 1. Path relationship of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for knowledge sharing.
Note: ** p < .01

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DISCUSSION
Influence of Motivation on Knowledge Sharing
In examining the relationship between personal motivation and knowledge
sharing, in this study a correlation was revealed between internal and external
motivation and knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior in the staff of an
organization. The motivation and altruistic characteristics of internal motivation
were significantly and positively correlated with knowledge-sharing willingness
and behavior. The reputation and mutual benefit factors were also significantly
and positively correlated with knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior.
However, the hygiene factors of external motivation had a significant positive
correlation only with sharing behavior, and not with willingness to share. Path
analysis indicated that internal motivation is the key factor driving knowledgesharing willingness and behavior in NPO staff. If the people working for the
organization were affected only by external motivation, they would not exhibit
significant knowledge-sharing willingness or behavior.
The greater the motivation in the people who work for an organization, the
greater their knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior. In this case, these
individuals seized the opportunity to increase self-knowledge to meet their own
needs for self-growth. This self-growth will also generate spillover effects for
people and situations associated with those individuals. Because interaction with
other people is unavoidable in society, people who work for the NPO will share
their knowledge and experience in the process of interaction. Therefore, selfgrowth is positively correlated with knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior.
Knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior increases when an organizations
staff have an altruistic character or mindset. When individuals are willing to
utilize their own resources to help their colleagues or friends in need, sharing of
knowledge and experience become part of the resources owned by individuals.
In our study, hygiene factors were positively correlated with knowledgesharing behavior, which also verifies that an individual will increase sharing
behavior when motivated by material rewards. Actual rewards, such as salary
benefits and promotions, act as incentives in the process of promoting knowledge
sharing, but they are not the main incentive in NPOs. Reputation, willingness to
share, and knowledge-sharing behavior were positively correlated, proving that
people who work for an NPO care to some degree about how the outside world
perceives them. An NPO could also use the awarding of honors and certificates
and compliments from colleagues to increase knowledge-sharing willingness
and behavior. In Taiwan most NPO volunteers work with a reward system. Good
work/behavior is recorded in their passports so that if they travel or purchase
something they can show the passport to get a discount. Such systems have
already been found to increase willingness to share knowledge and improve
behavior.

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Motivation factors and knowledge sharing

Correlation of Knowledge-Sharing Willingness and Behavior

The results of this study indicated that there is a correlation between
knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior, but the correlation was only
moderately significant indicating that people who are willing to work for an
NPO are generally altruistic and willing want to serve the public. Therefore,
the organizations workers are generally more likely to share their knowledge
and experience. Path analysis indicated that the path coefficient of willingness
to share versus sharing behavior was small in size, so sharing willingness may
generate sharing behavior. Sharing behavior varies in frequency and degree.
It is not always possible to have actual sharing behavior in NPOs or in other
organizations owing to constraints in time and manpower, but in general, in this
study it was found that willingness to share was not affected by personal attributes
(sex, age, education level, or seniority of position) or the external environment.
To a certain degree, willingness to share and knowledge-sharing behavior are
related. Results of this study indicated that the types of knowledge sharing in
many NPOs center mainly around communicating, learning, and knowledge
interactions. Because workers in these organizations are communicating and
coordinating with each other, they attempt to establish a basis of sharing
experience. When NPO workers have a positive attitude towards learning and
want to gain the knowledge offered by their colleagues, they create a mutual
interaction process in which individuals can share their knowledge or exchange
experiences.
REFERENCES
Amabile, T. M., Hill, K. G., Hennessey, B. A., & Tighe, E. M. (1994). The Work Preference
Inventory: Assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientation. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 66, 950-967.
Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (1998). Knowledge codification and coordination in Working
Knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business
School Press.
Deci, E., & Ryan, R. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New
York: Plenum Press.
Herzberg, F. (2003). One more time: How do you motivate employees? Harvard Business Review,
Jan., 87-96.
Hooff, B. V. D., & Weenen, F. D. L. V. (2004). Committed to share: Commitment and CMC use as
antecedents of knowledge sharing. Knowledge and Process Management, 11, 13-24.
Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington,
MA: Lexington.
Senge, P. (1998). Sharing knowledge. Executive Excellence, 15, 11-12.
Social Welfare Philanthropy Foundation Directory. (2003). Retrieved December 2009 from
http://sowffd.moi.gov.tw/Charity Funds/charity_queryBusiness.do

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