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What Money Cannot Buy: The Detrimental Effect of Rewards on Knowledge Sharing
Author(s) -
Lombardi Sara,
Cavaliere Vincenzo,
Giustiniano Luca,
Cipollini Fabrizio
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
european management review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.784
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1740-4762
pISSN - 1740-4754
DOI - 10.1111/emre.12346
Subject(s) - knowledge sharing , intrinsic motivation , mechanism (biology) , argument (complex analysis) , psychology , self determination theory , sample (material) , social psychology , knowledge management , computer science , autonomy , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , epistemology , chromatography , political science , law
Given their extra‐role nature, knowledge‐sharing behaviors need to be motivated. However, current literature fails to acknowledge that, instead of being determined by one type of motivation, they are more likely to derive from the joint effect of both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation (i.e., rewards). Based on this, we expect extrinsic rewards to crowd out the effect of intrinsic motivation on knowledge sharing. We go further and contend that extrinsic rewards might provide a formal coordination mechanism and interact with an informal coordinating mechanism (i.e., the use lateral coordination to foster employees' knowledge sharing). We empirically test this argument on a sample of 754 employees. The analysis shows that knowledge‐sharing rewards significantly hamper the positive effect of both intrinsic motivation and lateral integrative mechanisms on knowledge sharing, resulting in a detrimental factor for employees' social relationships and helpful behaviors.