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Extrinsic motivation as a determinant of knowledge exchange in sales teams: A social network approach
Author(s) -
David Natalie,
Brennecke Julia,
Rank Olaf
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
human resource management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.888
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-050X
pISSN - 0090-4848
DOI - 10.1002/hrm.21999
Subject(s) - dyad , microfoundations , perspective (graphical) , reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , social exchange theory , exponential random graph models , norm of reciprocity , reciprocal , psychology , knowledge management , social psychology , business , marketing , social capital , sociology , economics , computer science , theoretical computer science , artificial intelligence , random graph , graph , social science , linguistics , philosophy , macroeconomics
This paper investigates extrinsic motivation as a determinant of knowledge exchange among employees in sales teams. Applying a social network approach, we study different forms of knowledge‐exchange behaviors from the perspective of a focal employee and from the perspective of the dyad. From the focal employees' perspective, we disentangle knowledge seeking from knowledge providing, and argue that these two behaviors are affected differently by employees' extrinsic motivation. From the dyad perspective, we take similarity in motivation of tied‐to employees and reciprocity of exchange ties into account. To test our hypotheses, we apply exponential random graph models to data gathered from 138 employees in five different sales teams distributed across three companies in Central Europe. The results of our analysis from the focal employees' perspective show that extrinsically motivated employees generally engage in less knowledge exchange. The dyad perspective further highlights that sales employees proceed purposefully when they exchange knowledge with coworkers. For instance, two employees' relative levels of extrinsic motivation determine their willingness to engage in reciprocal knowledge exchange. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on the microfoundations of organizational knowledge management and draw conclusions concerning HRM practices used to foster extrinsic motivation, thereby affecting knowledge exchange.