Knowledge Sharing and Organizational Performance: the Role of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motives

This paper analyzes the role of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation for knowledge sharing on organizational performance. We distinguish between two types of knowledge-related performance, exploration (improving decision-making process, improving (the speed) of innovation, and developing new business areas) and exploitation (improving labor productivity, improving customer satisfaction, and reducing costs) of knowledge within organizations. We develop hypotheses about how extrinsic and intrinsic motivators, separately and together, impact these two different types of performance. We test the hypotheses on a sample of eight organizations (1,416 respondents) in the Danish public service sector which we have surveyed in the period 2003-2004. Our empirical analysis reveals that extrinsic motivators are related to knowledge exploitation whereas intrinsic motivators are associated with knowledge exploration within organizations. We also find that the simultaneous application of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators for knowledge sharing is negatively related to both knowledge exploitation and knowledge exploration within organizations.