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臺大管理論叢
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2.3 Knowledge Sharing Self-Efficacy and SNSs
How individuals judge their capability of accomplishing an assignment (i.e., self-
referent thought) affects their motivation and behavior. Prior research in the fields of
psychology and organizational behavior has explored the role of self-referent thought (De
Charms, 1968; Garber and Seligman, 1980; White, 1959). Normally, individuals avoid
activities that they believe exceed their coping capabilities but assuredly undertake and
perform those they judge themselves capable of managing (Bandura, 1977). According to
Bandura (1982), self-efficacy refers to judgments of how well one can execute certain
courses of action required to deal with prospective situations. Judgments of self-efficacy can
also determine how much effort individuals will put forth and how long they will persist in
the face of obstacles or aversive situations. Bandura (1982) suggests that self-efficacy
influences thought patterns, actions, and emotional arousals; thus the higher the level of
induced self-efficacy, the higher are the performance accomplishments and the lower is the
emotional arousal.
With knowledge becoming increasingly more important in organizations, a growing
number of studies have examined knowledge sharing self-efficacy. For example, research
has shown that knowledge sharing self-efficacy improves individuals’ motivation to share
knowledge with colleagues in organizations (Ardichvili, Page, and Wentling, 2003; Cabrera,
Collins, and Salgado, 2006; Kuo and Young, 2008). Such self-efficacy typically manifests in
individuals’ beliefs that their knowledge can help solve job-related problems (Constant,
Sproull, and Kiesler, 1996), improve work efficiency (Ba, Stallaert, and Whinston, 2001),
and make a difference to their organizations (Kollock, 1999; Wasko and Faraj, 2000). When
individuals share expertise useful to the organization, they gain confidence in what they can
do, and this confidence, in turn, increases self-efficacy (Constant, Kiesler, and Sproull,
1994).
In SNSs, posting personal experiences and opinions means sharing knowledge with
friends, either in “closed” or “open” forms. With closed knowledge sharing, one sender
shares his or her knowledge with only one recipient (e.g., through the mail function); with
open knowledge sharing, knowledge is shared with multiple recipients (e.g., posting on one’s
own or others’ “wall”) (Kang, Kim, and Bock, 2010). In general, both senders and recipients
are concerned about the accuracy of the content they receive or share. Thus, knowledge
sharing self-efficacy plays a prominent role. Bandura (1982) suggests that self-efficacy
involves a generative capability of integrating and making use of cognitive, social, and
behavioral skills. In the following paragraphs, we discuss how these three types of