Empirical Study Of The Incentive Factors For Knowledge Sharing

Nowadays, knowledge has been enterprises'strategic source for survival and development, which simultaneously promotes their knowledge level and ability of technical innovation at the core of enterprises'competition. To win an advantage over the opponent in this competition, enterprises should manage and utilize all kinds of knowledge effectively and thus given birth to new managerial concepts and methods– Knowledge Management. Knowledge sharing is an important component of Knowledge Management and is the key to the success as well. In the Chinese practice of knowledge sharing, enterprises are very much focused on the technique elements, such as introducing the Knowledge Management systems, purchasing the advanced management software and information device. However, they forget another crucial element of Knowledge Management, which is the employed. To manage the knowledge, there should be, first of all, the objects– enterprise knowledge, which obviously existed among the employees. The management of knowledge could never be advanced if the employees themselves didn't share their knowledge.This research is put forward with the core issue of the psychological need of knowledge sharing for individuals and the elements which influence this need. By the means of diagnoses and empirical research, I tried to find out the incentives and barriers which may influence the sharing motivation of different types of employees, in the hope of instructing the enterprises carry out pertinent stimulation measures and make the tactics more practical and operable. This article reviews the related literature concerning knowledge sharing and motivation theory, and puts forward the motivation model of knowledge sharing on the basis of praxiology theory. I combined Abraham Harold Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Fredrick Herzberg's 2 Factor Hygiene and Motivation Theory, as well as Clayton Alderfer's ERG theory with Tampoe's study and our own interviews, and culminating in a summary of four psychological needs which influence the knowledge sharing motivation and bring forth four categories comprised of both motivators and obstacles. Through the statistical analysis and the case study data garnered from our survey, I found out the most important motivators and obstacles for the knowledge sharing as they pertain to gender and age. We then made relevant suggestions to the enterprises on how to adopt appropriate motivating, measures in view of the different psychology needs, and suggested a way of building up a motivating mechanism for knowledge sharing in enterprises.