Individual und situational determinants of reciprocal behavior in knowledge and information sharing in groups

Completed Research Project

Title / Titel: Individual und situational determinants of reciprocal behavior in knowledge and information sharing in groups

Original title / Originaltitel: Individuelle und situative Determinanten reziproken Verhaltens beim Wissens- und Informationsaustausch in Gruppen

Summary / Zusammenfassung: The willingness to cooperate and reciprocate are a fundamental prerequsite to any collaboration. Within cooperation research, knowledge cooperation is of special interest, and can be defined as the ability and willingness to share knowledge even if there is no direct and immediate personal gain visible (Moser, 2002). Intangible assets such as knowledge and information grow ever more important and have to be distinguished clearly from material resources such as financial assets or raw materials. Unlike money, knowledge does not decrease when it is shared, but it increases as now more people share it. However, knowledge sharing might have a positive or negative effect on the value of the shared knowledge in terms of prestige, status, exclusiveness etc, which can affect cooperation. While there exists a large body of research on cooperation and reciprocity with respect to material and limited resources in psychology and economy, this is not the case for intangible assets such as information and knowledge. The current project therefore focuses on individual factors such as social orientation, and situational factors such as group composition, and specific rewards for reciprocal behavior such as promotion, social recognition, expert status, and financial gain, and studies their impact on reciprocity in information and knowledge sharing. An experimental design with 3 (group composition) x 5 (rewards) factors is used. Group composition is assigned by social orientation (prosocial vs. proself). For the group task, an adapted version of the personnel selection task is used. Results are exspected to give insight into the determinants of reciprocial behavior and important differences between immaterial and material resources for cooperation.

Publications / Publikationen: Moser, K. S. (2002). Wissenskooperation: Die Grundlage der Wissensmanagement-Praxis [Knowledge cooperation: The basis of knowledge management practice]. In W. Lüthy, E. Voit, & T. Wehner (Eds.), Wissensmanagement - Praxis. Einführung, Handlungsfelder und Fallbeispiele. Zürich: vdf Hochschulverlag (pp. 97-113).

Keywords / Suchbegriffe: reciprocal behavior, information sharing, knowledge cooperation, groups, cooperation, social orientation, experimental design

Project Leadership and Contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte

Dr. Karin S. Moser (Project Leader)

kmoser@sozpsy.uzh.ch

Funding Source(s) / Unterstützt durch: Forschungskredit der Universität Zürich

Duration of Project / Projektdauer: Feb 2004 to Dec 2006