An Empirical Study On The Relationship Between HRM Practices And Knowledge Sharing

There have been many different perspectives in the academic field about the construct elements of HRM practices (HRMP) and the relationship between HRM practices and knowledge sharing (KS). But all former studies, particularly the empirical studies, were almost conducted in the Western context, while lacking of exploration and testing in the Eastern context, especially in the background of China. Therefore this study is to explore the construct of HRMP and test the relationship between HRMP and KS, as well as between HRMP's interaction effects and KS in the background of China. Expecting to modify the foreign theories, in the meantime, this study is to provide some theoretical and empirical evidence for entrepreneur to promote KS with HRMP in China.This study adopted a combination of different research methods (literature review, in-depth interview and questionnaire investigation) to deeply and systematically demonstrate the construct of HRMP and its relationship with KS. By using different kinds of statistical methods, this study got comprehensive conclusions.The main findings are:(1) Based on the literature review and exploratory factor analysis, this study proposed a six factors structure model of HRMP including "planning", "staffing", "training", "promotion", "appraisal" and "compensation", which was the basic structure model. Two alternative structure models were also proposed, single factor model and two factors model. Single factor model referred to all items loaded on one factor, while two factors model referred to all items loaded on competence framework and motivation these two factors. By using structure equation modeling to compare these three models, we found that all the fit indexes of six factors structure model were much better than the other two's.(2) Through independent sample T test and one-way ANOVA, this study compared the mean differences of KS on the personal background variables. The results showed that gender, education, position and working years had no significant effect on KS, while age had a certain negative effect on KS.(3) By using correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and structure equation modeling on the questionnaire data, we found that HRMP had a positive effect on KS. Especially, the simultaneous effect of"planning","training"and"compensation"on the degree of KS was positive and substantial, while"staffing","promotion"and"appraisal"had no significant effect on KS. What's more, the interaction effect between"training"and"compensation", as well as between"promotion"and"compensation", had a positive effect on KS, while the interaction effect among other HRM practices had no significant effect on KS.(4) On the basis of literature review and combined with the real situation of the enterprises, this study introduced two moderator variables consisting of information technology (IT) and internal socialization mechanism (ISM). The results suggested that the interaction effect between"training"and IT, as well as between"compensation"and IT, had a positive effect on KS, while the interaction effect between HRMP and ISM had no significant effect on KS. It was proved that IT had a moderator effect on the relationship between HRMP and KS, while ISM didn't.