Impact of intrinsic motivators on knowledge sharing in virtual environments

implications for workplace information literacy and collaborative practices

Rajesh Singh

pp. 211-220

in: Serap Kurbanolu, Joumana Boustany, Esther Grassian, Diane Mizrachi, Loriene Roy (eds), Information literacy in everyday life, Berlin, Springer, 2019

Abstract

Although collaboration is considered as one of the most critical workplace skills, simply putting workers together into teams does not guarantee increased levels of collaboration and knowledge sharing. This exploratory study examines 169 LIS students' perceptions of the quality of knowledge creation in virtual teams across seven blended courses in 2011. The perceived quality of knowledge creation was measured and divided into three levels for analysis: enhanced, moderate and baseline. The findings indicate the critical role of intrinsic motivators, including trust, peer influence, and personal outcome expectations in facilitating knowledge sharing and enhancing knowledge creation. The implications of this study could possibly be further extrapolated in developing workplace information literacy instructions about collaborative practices across a variety of organizations.