Empirical Investigation of Impact of Organizational Culture, Prosocial Behavior and Organizational Trust on Sharing Mistakes in Knowledge Management Systems

This study is a part of a larger study which looked at the knowledge sharing behavior of employees within work organizations. In this paper we look at the sharing behavior related to a specific type of knowledge: knowledge created through learning from one’s mistake. Learning through mistakes can be potentially a very good way of learning and thus can generate great deal of public good. However, employees may not feel like sharing their mistakes with others as it may generate negative personal gains for them. This study therefore looked at the conditions when employees may feel like sharing their mistakes. The study found that group culture, developmental culture, rational culture, organizational trust and individual’s general compliance behavior support employees mistake sharing. Hierarchical culture is negatively related and individual’s helping behavior is not related to mistake sharing.