医疗保健中的知识共享和创新工作行为英文文献和中文翻译(7)
However,these results also show that the ability andopportunity that are relevant for knowledgesharing also affect engagement in IWBs. Theability to share knowledge can thus be under-stood as a proxy for employees’ capability tomanage knowledge in its entirety. Innovation,in particular, is a complex behaviour thatinvolves the acquisition, recombination, com-munication and application of knowledge.Ourfindings provide further empirical evidencethat the skill-set required for knowledgesharing overlapswith that required for innova-tion, which needs the ability to elaborate,re-combine and disseminate knowledge.Another requirement common to both knowl-edge sharing and IWBs is a supportive workenvironment. Both are proactive behavioursand thus depend upon a work environmentwhere theworkload and climate support extra-role efforts. Our results confirmthat the oppor-tunities driving employees to share knowledgedo not conflict with those driving IWBs.Overall, we can argue that knowledge sharingand IWBs might both be fostered through acommon set of organizational-level interven-tions (e.g., knowledge education and training,and a supportive climate andworkload).At thesame time, the (expected) lack of correlationbetweenmotivation to share and IWB confirmstheir differences. Thus, while certain interven-tions might facilitate both behaviours, organi-zations need two distinct strategies to triggerthem, because employees perceive distinct per-sonal and organizational costs, benefits andthreats when they share or innovate.Practical ImplicationsKnowledge sharing does not consist merely incommunicating information, but is rather astructured process of knowledge elaborationand codification that makes the knowledgeclearer not just to the recipients, but also to itspossessor. Engaging in knowledge sharingbehaviours carries a high inpidual cost interms of time, effort and potential personaldisadvantages, but also delivers personal ben-efits to employees in terms of reciprocationand support for innovation. Organizationsshould stimulate knowledge sharing beyondthe usual emphasis on it as a ‘gift’ or ‘trade’transaction (Konstantinou & Fincham, 2011),presenting it also as a convenient ‘workout’that can improve employees’ understanding oflocal routines and environments, and theircapability to introduce innovation at work.Managers and Chief Information Officers(CIOs) are thus called upon to overcome a per-sistent belief that ‘structured’ knowledgesharing is merely a waste of time. They canconsider the MOA antecedents of knowledgesharing and design initiatives that affect them.Our results confirm that knowledge sharingdepends on inpiduals’ motivation, opportu-nity and ability. Managers and CIOs shouldaccordingly build an organizational and tech-nological environment that creates the condi-tions for the exchange of tacit knowledge.Information and communication technologies(ICTs) offer an opportunity for easier andmore efficient inter-employee knowledgesharing, avoiding the risk of increasingprofessionals’ workload, worsening theorganizational climate, or having the costs ofknowledge sharing outbalance its benefits.Overall, we can highlight the importance ofdesigning initiatives at the organizational levelthat (i) place knowledge sharing front andcentre as a priority for both the organizationand employees, and (ii) alleviate the potentialconstraints on knowledge sharing at theemployee level. Neglecting this need couldresult in initiatives that soon fail because theyare unable to create the preconditions for indi-vidual action.ConclusionsThis study sheds new light on the relationshipbetween knowledge and innovation by adopt-ing a micro-level perspective. We surveyedhealthcare professionals within the peculiar,knowledge-intensive context of palliative care,and our results show that employees whoshare their knowledge are more likely toengage in IWBs. Our findings also indicatethat two preconditions for inpidual knowl-edge sharing – namely, employees’ ability andopportunity – also directly affect innovativebehaviours. This implies that a commonunderlying factor explains why employeeswho are better able to share knowledge aremore likely to innovate, and why employeeswho have the opportunity to share knowledgeare more likely to innovate.