Organizational climate, trust and knowledge sharing: insights from Malaysia

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of organizational climate and trust (TR) on knowledge-sharing (KS) behaviour in selected multinational firms in an emerging market – Malaysia. Two dimensions of KS – knowledge collecting (KC) and knowledge donating (KD) – were separately studied for this research.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data were collected from 231 participants from 25 multinational firms. Multivariate analysis was used to assess the research model.

Findings

The research findings indicate that organizational climate dimension, affiliation, is positively related to both KD and KC, while fairness dimensions of organizational climate are not positively related to KD and KC. Among the two dimensions of TR (cognitive and affective), it was found that cognitive TR is positively related to KD, while affective TR is positively related to KC.

Research limitations/implications

The sampling was confined to the Klang Valley area of Malaysia.

Practical implications

The study is useful because it makes an attempt to study the relationship between organizational climate and the two dimensions of KS, KC and KD, separately. The study examines the similar relationship with TR.

Originality/value

This research has provided both theoretical and managerial implications to further advance the literature on the impact of organization factors such as organizational climate (OC) and individual factors such as TR on KS behaviour. This research examines the relationship of OC with specific KS dimensions such as KD and KC. Limited research has addressed this. This research has also contributed further to business literature by applying social capital theory in explaining the impact of multidimensional categories of TR: affective TR and cognitive-based TR on KD and KC.

Citation

Jain, K.K., Sandhu, M.S. and Goh, S.K. (2015), "Organizational climate, trust and knowledge sharing: insights from Malaysia", Journal of Asia Business Studies, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 54-77. https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-07-2013-0040