An Examination of the Quality of Tacit Knowledge Sharing through the Theory of Reasoned Action

Knowledge is information and understanding gained through experience, some of this professional knowledge of an employee is recorded and documented among the organization’s files and databases (explicit knowledge), professional experience, know how, know why are held back in the minds of employees (tacit knowledge). This tacit knowledge when appropriately shared can become vital source of quality products/ services and innovation. Knowledge sharing is hampered when individuals are not motivated enough to come forward and share their professional experiences, to obtain high quality of knowledge sharing one needs to understand the motivations (intentions) behind it. Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) helps us comprehend them. It states that intentions are function of person’s attitude and subjective norms which collectively help form intentions. Data regarding the knowledge sharing intentions of 209 Information Technology (I.T) professionals from more than 70 I.T companies registered with PSEB located in 5 major cities of Pakistan was obtained. Using Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) technique, the TRA model showed a good fit with the researched data. The I.T professionals show their intent towards sharing tacit knowledge and this intent is mostly influenced by the subjective norms towards sharing knowledge and less by their personal attitude.