Abstract
Employees from different departments of an organization often do not have the relationships and interaction patterns that facilitate integrating and applying their knowledge together. This study proposes that departments that develop collectivist rather than individualist relationships engage in constructive controversy (CC) and share knowledge. Results using data from CEOs and Vice Presidents of various industries and regions of China suggested that collectivist but not individualistic values promote open-minded discussion of views which results in knowledge sharing. Coupled with previous research, these results suggest that collectivist values and CC provide an important foundation for productive knowledge management in organizations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3393-3412 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | International Journal of Human Resource Management |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 16 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2011 |
Funding
April 1010: Note: The authors appreciate the support of the able research assistants at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, and Ann, Peng Chunyan at Lingnan. This work has been supported by Natural Science Foundation of China 70625003, 70572005, 70890080, 70890081, 70321001, 70272007) and the Key Research Project Foundation for Humanity & Social Science of Chinese Education Committee (06JJD630013) to the first author. It has also been supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, (Project No: LU3404/05H) to the second author.
Keywords
- China
- Collectivism
- Controversy
- Individualism
- Knowledge sharing
- Organizational values