The Impact of Organizational Context and Information Technology on Employee Knowledge‐Sharing Capabilities

Abstract

Sharing knowledge and information is an important factor in the discourses on electronic government, national security, and human capital management in public administration. This article analyzes the impact of organizational context and IT on employees’ perceptions of knowledge‐sharing capabilities in five public sector and five private sector organizations in South Korea. Social networks, centralization, performance‐based reward systems, employee usage of IT applications, and user‐friendly IT systems were found to significantly affect employee knowledge‐sharing capabilities in the organizations studied. For public sector employees, social networks, performance‐based reward systems, and employee usage of IT applications are all positively associated with high levels of employee knowledge‐sharing capabilities. Lessons and implications for knowledge‐sharing capabilities and management leadership in the public sector are presented.