Organization. Student registration number: Deadline for handing in:

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1 Titel/Title: The interaction between knowledge-sharing ability, motivation and extraversion in a voluntary context. Samspillet mellem videndelingsevne, motivation og ekstraversion i en frivillig kontekst. Subject area: Master s thesis Organization Field of study: Name of author: Economics and Management Christian Romby Poulsen Student registration number: Name of supervisor: Deadline for handing in: Anders Ryom Villadsen May 13 th, 12:00 a.m. Public available: Page count: Yes 73 pages

2 Abstract: Knowledge-sharing is often emphasized as a tool for organizations to utilize in order to become more effective. Inspired from recent advances within Self-Determination Theory and knowledge-sharing, a theoretical model was developed that predicted effects on knowledge-sharing ability from intrinsic and prosocial motivation as well as extraversion. Additionally, interaction effects were also argued to exist between the motivational forms and extraversion. These suggested that intrinsic motivation would moderate the effect of prosocial motivation on knowledge-sharing ability. Furthermore, central to the study was also the suggestion that when intrinsic motivation was present, prosocial motivation would have a significant negative, moderating effect on the effect of extraversion on knowledge-sharing ability, leading to introverts benefitting more from the increased level of intrinsic and prosocial motivation. Through analysis of survey-data collected from volunteers at a non-profit organization, these suggestions were tested. The results showed that when intrinsic and prosocial motivation were high, introversion lead to higher knowledge-sharing ability than extraversion; and that intrinsic motivation moderated the effect of prosocial motivation on knowledge-sharing ability.

3 Content Introduction... 4 Structure of this paper... 7 Chapter 1: Research Context and Theory... 9 Lektier Online... 9 Non-profit organizations and volunteers Chapter 2: Theory and hypothesis development Knowledge-sharing ability The importance of knowledge Knowledge sharing Knowledge-sharing ability Management concerns regarding knowledge sharing Motivation: Self-Determination Theory Elaboration Hypothesis development Five-Factor Model: Extraversion Extraversion Chapter 3: Methods Data collection Research Instrument Questionnaire creation Cleaning of data file Missing values Outliers Sample size Effects on data and model aspects Results Characteristics of respondents Preparation for regression analysis Techniques for assessing whether variables meet required assumptions State of assumptions prior to structural analysis Distribution of the original variables Sum up: violations of assumptions... 41

4 Structural characteristics of the data Techniques for factor analysis Variable examination Measures Knowledge-sharing ability Motivation Extraversion Control variables Variables for complementary analyses Analytics techniques for hypothesis testing Assumptions for multiple regression analysis Sum up: methods, factor creations and multiple regression techniques Chapter 4: Results Model testing Hypothesis overview Chapter 5: Discussion Perspectives Contributions Theoretical Managerial Personal Limitations Areas for future research Conclusion Literature list Appendix A: Complementary analyses Appendix B: Questionnaire... 79

5 Introduction In recent years, following a lengthy economical crisis and due to demographic changes, increased pressure has been put on policy-makers in Denmark to cut down on public spending and decrease the growth of the public sector, resulting in decreased hiring and increased layoffs by the public sector. Arguably, this will lower the welfare for society in general and/or specific groups within society. A way to compensate for the tightened budget for the public sector is to include the civic sector as a service provider, thus increasing the involvement of voluntaries. This is an area that is in need of more focus from management scholars due to changing circumstances: Expanding our knowledge on the motivation of today s volunteers and its effects is therefore of utmost importance (Bidee et al., 2012) Such effects could arguably be sharing knowledge (Gagne, 2008). Non-profit organizations are not the only organizations to have experienced changing circumstances; today s companies are facing an ever increasing degree of changing environments, which increases the requirements for flexibility and innovation (Scharmer, 2009). Central to flexibility and innovation is also knowledge-sharing, since knowledge arguably is required in order to act flexible, and since innovation relies on knowledge being shared where would Apple be if Steve Jobs had not gotten his eyes on the technologies developed at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center? Probably still successful, but the visit surely did help them 1. Knowledge, and the sharing of it, it seems, is of value to most organizations, and it therefore comes as no surprise that it has been given much focus during the last decades. One approach has been the solution, that the sharing of knowledge has been sought to be resolved through ever more advanced technologies, which make it possible to handle and interpret increasing amounts of data. However, research has also shown that as a supplement or complement to technology, the management of human resources can have a substantial effect on the knowledge sharing within organizations through the behaviour of individuals, where several aspects influence the behaviour of the individual (Choi& Lee, 2003; Reinholdt et al., 2011). Not only does the human aspect of knowledge concern 1 4

6 the sharing of knowledge, it also contributes to human learning through experience, which is perceived to be an important determinant of organizational performance (Huber, 1991). One of the key aspects of any organizational behaviour is the ability of the organizational member to perform the desired action, which in this case concerns the ability to share knowledge. Hence, it is in the interest of organizations that their members increase their ability to share knowledge in order for the organization to become more effective at managing knowledge and, as a consequence, increases its competitiveness and profitability (Grant, 1996). Another key aspect is the motivation of the individual, since this is the fuel for any behaviour and as quoted, a central aspect of non-profit organizations. Often, motivation has been seen as a matter of more or less; individuals high on motivation perform better than individuals low on motivation. However, recent research has provided support for another view of motivation, where the focus is on different kinds of motivation, e.g. monetary rewards or because the behaviour is interesting. These different forms of motivation have proved to provide different outcomes across various settings (see e.g. Grant, 2008; Gagne & Deci, 2005). Finally, the focus on individual differences is significant in modern society, with various products being offered that seek to determine the traits and types that the individual possesses and belong to. This commercial and societal focus on trait and type is also rooted in scientific findings, which have found effects of personality traits and types on various measures, e.g. knowledge-sharing (Teh, 2011). Extraversion is one trait that has received focus within science (McCrae & John, 1992) as well as popular press 2. Representing the degree of which people are outward or inward, it seems plausible that it is a good representation of the potential effects of trait within knowledge-sharing context. The abovementioned makes up the foundation for an interesting inquiry into the effect and interaction of motivation and extraversion on the ability to share knowledge. Based on this, the problem statement of this thesis is therefore: This study seeks to determine the effect of intrinsic and prosocial motivation as well as extraversion on knowledge-sharing ability in a voluntary context

7 The study based on this statement will include testing for a moderating effect of intrinsic motivation on the effect of prosocial motivation on knowledge-sharing ability, as well as testing the effect of extraversion on knowledge-sharing ability for moderating effect caused by both forms of motivation. The hope was that such a study would contribute with knowledge to the area of knowledge-sharing ability. These areas have proven to provide opportunity for researchers to gain valuable knowledge, such as the moderating effect of the ability to share knowledge when measuring effects from network centrality on knowledge-sharing (Reinholdt et al., 2011). Furthermore, knowledge-sharing ability has also shown to be important for organizations in order to avoid bottleneck problems (Siemsen et al., 2008). The tools used for answering these questions were multiple regression analyses based on data collected through the use of questionnaires which asked the respondent questions specifically covering the subjects of knowledgesharing, motivation and extraversion. In order to test the moderation effects, two- and threeway interaction tests were conducted. The theoretical model, as depicted in Figure 1, was tested on voluntary homework assistants at Lektier Online. Lektier Online is situated at and co-sponsored by The State and University Library in Aarhus. It has primarily been financed by the Satspulje, where a substantial amount of the financing has been spent on the development of a website dedicated to one-on-one home-work assistance to pupils, which has now been running for three years (primo 2013) with the home-work assistance being offered by volunteers, primarily students. 6

8 Lektier Online differs from other voluntary organizations, since Lektier Online is an instrument for policymakers to provide services to citizens in this case home-work assistance over the internet targeted a marginalized group: 2 nd generation immigrant boys from problematic neighbourhoods. Normally, services like these are being provided by NGOs that have a life of their own, often with a democratic organization representing its members values and wishes for society through collective action and thus plausible appealing to different motives for voluntary work than instrumental organizations like Lektier Online. This leaves the public sector with no clear-cut case to study and follow with regards to organizing a voluntary workforce. This is especially the case with regards to motivation, since monetary rewards are not an option and since a public run organization is not an organization for people to use and mould seeking to act through their values and wishes for society. Analysis of the data collected provided results that to a large extent gave support for the hypotheses that were developed, of which the most interesting findings were a moderating effect from intrinsic motivation on the effect of prosocial motivation on the ability to share knowledge, with this effect extending even further: intrinsic motivation moderated the moderating effect of prosocial on extraversion s effect on knowledge sharing ability to such an extent, that when highly intrinsically and prosocially motivated, introverts are found to be the people most likely to increase their knowledge-sharing ability. These findings confirmed the relevancy of the problem statement of this study. The results were compared with recent research in the area of motivation, knowledge-sharing and performance (Reinholdt et al., 2011; Grant, 2008). Based on the results and the theoretical perspectives, managerial recommendations was made aimed at voluntary organizations, current as well as future, where knowledge sharing is a relevant factor either for the goal of the organization or its members. Moreover, recommendations were also made for organizations and individuals in general, since the results were, at least to some degree, thought to be applicable in other contexts than purely non-profit and voluntary ones. Furthermore, limitations of this study are also presented, theoretical as well as methodological limitations, before concluding remarks are made. Structure of this paper Before the actual content of this study is presented, the following will briefly provide an overview of the structure of this paper, listing the chapters and key aspects of their contents: 7

9 Chapter 1: Research context This chapter provides a description of the research context, Lektier Online, and put it into theoretical perspective through theories of non-profit organizations; from a macro as well as a micro perspective. Chapter 2: Hypothesis development In this chapter the theories of knowledge-sharing, motivation and extraversion are described and used for hypothesis development. Chapter 3: Method This chapter provides an account of the process through which the hypotheses were tested spanning from initial interviews with project personnel, data collection, descriptive statistics, test of compliance with assumptions for multiple regressions, factor analysis and the techniques used for the multiple regression analyses. Chapter 4: Results The results from the analyses are presented in this chapter and figures based on confirmed hypotheses are presented in order to provide intuitive understanding of the effects of the confirmed hypotheses on knowledge-sharing ability. Chapter 5: Discussion and conclusion The final chapter will briefly sum up the areas covered by the paper up until that point. Following that, theoretical contributions derived from the results will be presented together with managerial recommendations, where specifically Lektier Online will be used as a case onto which the results from this study will be applied. Limitations concerning the methods applied will also be discussed. 8

10 Chapter 1: Research Context and Theory Lektier Online Before presenting the actual theory used for the model and hypotheses development, the context in which the model will be tested will be described along with knowledge that can help put the research context into perspective. As mentioned in the introduction, the research site used in this study was Lektier Online. This is an organization founded at The State and University Library in Aarhus in 2009, where major part of work is done by voluntaries. The project has been financed by Satspuljen through two grants, each spanning three years: the first grant was for the period of and the second grant for the period The purpose of the project is to provide online homework assistance through a website that provides an environment for effective communication and interaction: whiteboard, visual and audio communication, and a chat-function. The target group is marginalized, ethnic children in the 6 th to 10 th grade. Of those, especially the boys seem to be having problems with homework when they reach grade 9-10 as they discontinue the traditional homework assistance that is being offered at the libraries and by various organizations around the country. At present time there are between 10 and 15 homework assistants on duty Sunday Thursday between hour and the organization now has another department situated at The Royal Library in Copenhagen. There are about 100 homework assistants associated with the State and University Library in Aarhus and about 70 homework assistants associated with the Royal Library in Copenhagen. At both places the homework assistants are being recruited among students through local information campaigns (flyers, tvscreens etc.) and electronic communication channels (e.g. forums). There has also been established a partnership with a major IT-company, which has committed to contributing with personnel for homework assistance and taken responsibility for further development of the website. Homework assistants are committed to two duties each month and they commit for half a year when signing up as homework assistants. Sessions with pupils vary in length but with a maximum of 45 min. and the homework assistance is provided one-on-one. The assistance is primarily given within the areas of mathematics, Danish and English, while significant assistance is also given within areas of natural sciences and German. Besides giving homework assistance, several homework assistants are also involved in organizing and contributing to events for the group of homework assistants. These events are focused on professional and social aspects and are typically attended by approximately 20 homework assistants. 9

11 The homework assistance is being provided from call centres at the two libraries and with the partnership company linking up from its own location. Non-profit organizations and volunteers Lektier Online can be characterized as a non-profit organization since it is based on grants from state agencies and since it does not have any owners who profit from the project. This is based on the following descriptions of voluntary work: first Salamon & Anheier s (1998), who states that non-profit organizations exist across various nations, characterized by being entities organized, private, non-profit-distributing, selfgoverning and in a significant degree relying on voluntary participation; second Bidee et al. (2013) who, referring to Hartenian (2007) and Ziemek (2006), defines voluntary work as performing an activity out of free will, on a regular basis and with the benefit of people outside the own household or family circle, without being remunerated for this work (although certain benefits or reimbursements are allowed). Having categorized Lektier Online as a non-profit organization, the following will briefly present knowledge in macro and micro dimensions pertaining to non-profit organizations in order to provide a point of reference with regard to the contributions, theoretical as well as managerial, of the results from this study in the area of non-profit organizations (though the contributions of this study are not limited to this area). The topic of non-profit organizations does not seem to have obtained the level of focus within science, at least within the area of management, which its role within society warrants (Akingbola, 2012). Until recently, theories seeking to explain the existence of non-profit organizations from a macro point of view have failed achieving validity, especially due to the lack of data to analyze. The results of this have been described as an open season of theory building by Salamon and Anheier (1998). Same authors proposed a new theory, which they named Social Origins Theory. This theory was based on newly acquired crossnational data on the non-profit sector. The motivation for a new theory was the fact that previous theories government failure/market failure theory, supply-side theory, trust theories, welfare state theory, and interdependence theory in large part failed to explain the variations within the acquired data. The derived theory of social origins bridges economic models with historical accounts and treats the non-profit sector not as... floating freely in social space but as an integral part of a social system whose role and scale are a by-product of a complex set of historical forces. While having several characteristics in common with for-profit organizations, non-profit organizations also differ in various ways, with arguably the most distinctive one being the way it is funded. This fundamentally influences governance aspects of the organization which influence strategy and so on. Though research in organizational effectiveness of non-profit organizations has increased during the last decade, a 10

12 comprehensive model of HR practices in non-profit organizations is missing according to Akingbola (2013). Same author suggests a model which proposes that HRM practices within a non-profit organization should be aligned with characteristics of the interactions with employees, funders and board of directors through the application of appropriate principles and practices. Also in need of more research is one of the most important aspects of managing a voluntary organization: the motivation of voluntary workers; from the initial attraction of voluntary workers to retention. Furthermore, the success of motivating the voluntary labour force has significant effects on the effort provided by the voluntaries (Bidee et al., 2013). It thus seems that the contexts of voluntary organizations, in this case Lektier Online, are appropriate for the study of knowledge-sharing, motivation and personal trait, while they also seem to be an area which could benefit from further knowledge within the respective theoretical areas. In the following the theoretical model and the hypotheses will be developed. 11

13 Chapter 2: Theory and hypothesis development Knowledge-sharing ability The ability of employees to perform actions, deemed desirable in their respective organizational context, has received significant interest throughout history. Recently, the concept of ability has also begun receiving some attention within the field of knowledge, where research has sought to shed light on the effects of the individual s ability to share knowledge on knowledge-sharing (Siemsen et al., 2008; Reinholdt et al.,2011).this study s concept of knowledge-sharing ability draws heavily from this recent research while also seeking to add another element besides the behavioural constituent; the addition of an individual s perceived ability to share knowledge. However, before the concept of knowledge-sharing ability is elaborated, the concepts of knowledge and knowledge-sharing will be explained below through a short review of important theoretical and empirical literature. This chronological explanation of the knowledge concept is made in order to provide an overview of the context within which the knowledge-sharing ability operates. This should provide support for the importance of the ability concept with the area of knowledge to practitioners as well as scholars. The importance of knowledge The importance of knowledge within the area of business, management and organizations has been a subject of significant theorizing and empirical research through several decades (Huber, 1991) and nothing seems to indicate a decline of interest in the subject; in academia as well as in practical life (Rodan & Galunic, 2004). The importance of knowledge to organizations builds on various arguments and evidence with knowledge being represented by different choices of label. E.g. are human capital and knowledge often used in close alignment with each other: Investigating the effects of human capital on strategy and performance in larger, professional service firms, Hitt et al. (2001) concluded that the results unequivocally suggest the importance of human capital for firm performance, where attributes of human capital included education, experience and skills. These are attributes which the authors link directly to the concept of knowledge. Investigating the influence of intellectual capital on a firm s ability to innovate, Subramaniam and Youndt (2005) found the collaboration between human capital again with human capital in close alignment with knowledge and social capital to have a significant impact on firms ability do make radical innovations. These results relate to the human part of knowledge, an area which Ipe (2003) describes as being important for the organization s chances of achieving its goals, which together with technology-driven perspectives of knowledge form the major aspects of knowledge management in an organization. Empirical research on human- and system-oriented styles of knowledge management suggests that a combination of both types result in superior performance compared to using either one and 12

14 with passive knowledge management being the least effective (Choi and Lee, 2003), thus indicating the importance of knowledge to organizations. The performance effects of knowledge are also traceable to the level of managers, where access to different knowledge through social network has been found to improve managers performance and, in particular, their innovation performance (Rodan and Galunic, 2004). With the evidence pointing at a significant importance of knowledge on the performance of organizations, it seems reasonable to assume that organizations like Lektier Online, where the major part of the work is done by volunteers, is affected by aspects of knowledge too. Hence, research in knowledge will be elaborated and aspects of it, which are believed to be of significant interest to Lektier Online (and organizations in general), will be highlighted and integrated into a theoretical model. Definition of knowledge Before further elaboration of the importance and usability of knowledge and its theories, it is important to define what is meant by knowledge. As Grant mentions nearly two decades ago, a simple agreed-upon definition of knowledge has not been established, and because of that Grant chooses a pragmatic approach when handling the concept of knowledge (Grant, 1996). I follow Grant when using that which is known as a definition of knowledge while recognizing that there are many types of knowledge of value to the firm, which is evident from various contributions to the field. In contrast to Grant s broad knowledge category is more complex ones such as Nonaka et al. s (2000) Knowledge is dynamic, since it is created in social interactions amongst individuals and organizations. Knowledge is context-specific, as it depends on a particular time and space. The reason for applying with Grant s choice of definition is the fact that the purpose of this paper is not one of furthering the understanding of the concept of knowledge, but instead one of investigating the relationship between knowledge and other constructs. Hence it makes sense to use a broad definition of knowledge that aims to capture the value of knowledge to the firm. Furthermore, this is also the reason why this study uses Grant s proposal of a knowledge-based theory of the firm as a framework for conceptualizing knowledge and the application of it by organizations in this case Lektier Online. Academic depth and breadth of knowledge Within academia, the concept of knowledge is integrated with various fields of study. In the field of strategy, the knowledge based theory of the firm views the primary role of the firm as integrating the specialist knowledge resident in individuals into goods and services (Grant, 1996). In the field of innovation, knowledge too weighs in with significant importance: from the conventional approaches of utilizing tacit and explicit knowledge to the spiritual ones (Scharmer, 2009), knowledge has been identified as a key driver for innovation. Within the field of organizations, knowledge can be seen as the determinant 13

15 of organizing and organization (Nonaka, 1992), and organizational learning is to a great extent overlapping with knowledge acquisition (Huber, 1991). With the academic breadth of the fields dealing with the concept of knowledge, it is of no surprise that great effort has been put into theorizing and doing empirical research, often in collaboration with constructs from other theories, in order to gain greater insight into the phenomena of knowledge. Recently, Gagné (2009) used Human Resource Theory in combination with psychology to create a model of Knowledge-Sharing Motivation, which argues for the importance of motivation and HR practices on knowledge-sharing behaviour; Siemsen et. al. (2008) uses a knowledge-sharing context to test a model of organizational performance and finds support of a bottleneck theory of knowledge-sharing, where the emphasis is on one of three factors, Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA), that can be identified as being a constraining factor in a given context e.g. training employees in better knowledge-sharing is of little help if they do not have the time to share knowledge due to excessive work load. Based on the same framework, the MOA, Reinholdt et. al. (2011) found evidence of knowledge-sharing being dependent on motivation, opportunities and ability with opportunities being in the form of network and ability in the form of knowledge-sharing ability acquired through e.g. training, with all three of them required to be high in order to substantially affect knowledge-sharing behaviour. As mentioned previously, the knowledge-based theory of the firm views knowledge as an important resource for the firm while it also makes the case for viewing the individual as the primary actor in knowledge creation and the principal repository of knowledge (Grant, 1996). Though Grant primarily focuses on knowledge application by specialists, he also mentions the important role of common knowledge, describing five different types: 1) language 2) other forms of symbolic communication 3) commonality of specialized knowledge 4) shared meaning, and 5) recognition of individual knowledge domains Of those, especially 2, 3 and 5 are represented at Lektier Online, since specific and general software are being used (2), professional courses based on different kinds of knowledge are offered and there is social interaction between members, which plausibly leads to recognition of the knowledge domains among those socializing (3 and 5). With various forms of common knowledge being represented at Lektier Online, 14

16 it is reasonable to assume that being involved in Lektier Online could be a source for the individual to acquire common knowledge contributing to increased organizational effectiveness. Besides common knowledge, specialized knowledge is also used. One area is the homework assistance. Though the degree of specialization is not at the same level as could be seen in a typical R&D department, the knowledge applied within the various courses is not common; homework assistants assisting with mathematics typically study natural sciences or economics, and homework assistants assisting with e.g. Danish typically study within the area of Arts. Though it could be speculated that the reason for the course distribution of the homework assistants is due to professional interest of the individual homework assistant (rather than due to acquired knowledge), it is my point of view, based on three years of experience at Lektier Online, that the level of knowledge needed for giving homework assistance within a specific course is higher than the common level possessed by students with background in other courses from their study. Specialized knowledge is also being applied through the work of the teams. E.g. a group of homework assistants, in collaboration with a project member responsible for marketing of the service, apply knowledge obtained from their educations when making choices as to how to reach out to the target group. The students also effectuate the decisions made, e.g. by visiting schools and running Facebook campaigns, thus furthering their specialized knowledge through experience. Besides being seen as common or specialized knowledge, Grant also distinguishes between knowledge that is easy to transfer, knowing about, and knowledge that is difficult to transfer, knowing how these, he argues, are parallels to the explicit and tacit distinctions often used, e.g. by Nonaka (1991). Hence, when homework assistants contribute to courses in e.g. mathematics by presenting a topic, it could be argued that they contribute to other s knowing about mathematics while increasing their own knowing how about presenting and arranging an event in an organizational context. Knowledge sharing With the budget of Lektier Online being tight, buying knowledge on the market is not an option. Thus, spending money on consultants, as normal market based companies do, is not a viable option for Lektier Online in order for its members to acquire new knowledge (though external people are used from time to time). This makes the previous example of a course in mathematics arranged by the homework assistants themselves vital with regard to opportunities for acquiring knowledge within the organizational context of Lektier Online. These processes are detrimental for learning, for the individual as well as the organization, since learning can be viewed as taking place when the behavioural repository of an individual or organization has been changed due to the processing of information (Huber, 1991). This can be argued to be the case with the 15

17 mathematic course mentioned: the individual attending the course gains a better insight into mathematics, thus making him better equipped for giving assistance, while the organization gains experience with facilitating professional courses arranged by homework assistants, which e.g. can be a springboard for other courses and events that require a higher degree of knowledge about facilitating events before they can be facilitated. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, events like these arguably increase the stock of common knowledge residing within the organization, e.g. by giving the homework assistants opportunities to socialize and thus get to increase their knowledge about their fellow homework assistants competencies. As one respondent who, referring to what s(he) had gained from being associated with Lektier Online, commented: How much different knowledge that is being generated at the different fields of study. In addition to this, specialization can arguably also occur by the presenter getting better at presenting and the attendees getting better at the lectured course. Knowledge-sharing ability Having explained the concepts of knowledge and the sharing of knowledge and their importance to the organization and the individual, the focus will now be put on the ability to share knowledge. This study follows the previous study of Siemsen et. al. (2008) and uses knowledge-sharing ability as a construct representing an individual s skills and knowledge base, in this case pertaining to the activity of sharing knowledge (Though originally adapted from Rothshild, 1999). Reinholdt et al. (2011) argues (based on Cohen & Levinthal, 1990; Martin & Salomon, 2003) that the extensiveness and diversity of the existing knowledge of an employee affect the chances for knowledge sharing to occur. The value of the ability to share knowledge was also emphasized by Grant (1996), when he argued for the view that the primary role of the firm as integrating the specialist knowledge resident in individuals into goods and services and for this to happen, the ability had to be present. Reinholdt et. al. (2011) supports the role of knowledge-sharing ability empirically by showing a connection between the ability to acquire and share knowledge and actions of knowledge-sharing. Their model is based on the MOA framework, which poses a three-way interaction between motivation, opportunity and ability, an interaction that determines the performance by the individual employee (Blumberg and Pringle, 1982)(The original wording by Blumberg and Pringle was Capacity, Willingness and Opportunity). The interaction between motivation-opportunity-ability is of multiplicative form and was abstractly described as P=f(OxCxW) thus representing an interaction where a value of zero by any of the three variables would lead to no performance (or action), and a continuous change of effect when the variables are larger than zero. Although being intuitively comprehensible, empirical support has been lacking which led Siemsen et. 16

18 al. (2008) to propose a revision of the functionality of the MOA framework; rather than being in the form of a linear or multiplicative relationship, the function of performance (or action) is instead dependable upon the constraining factor of the three variables. The constraining-factor model (CFM) captures the notion that in the absence of any of the MOA variables no action takes place, but it does not additionally impose a continuous change in the size of the effect. The CFM was tested in the context of knowledge-sharing, where the dependent variable was knowledge-sharing attempts and the independent variables were motivation to share, time availability (representing opportunity) and ability to share. The results supported the CFM in a knowledge-sharing context, with the model being superior to previous MOA models. Applying these results to the context of Lektier Online and the focus of this study that of measuring the effects of motivation and extraversion on an individual s knowledge-sharing ability require the following to be clarified: 1) are there opportunities for building knowledge-sharing ability and applying it within Lektier Online?, and 2) does extraversion fit with the MOA framework?. Regarding 1), opportunities are present, since homework assistants are allowed to organize events focused on knowledge-sharing, and they are generally given opportunities for involvement and are allowed to influence the structure of the organization. As for 2), the original MOA framework (Bloomberg and Pringle, 1982) used the broad term of Capacity to represent personal factors such as ability, stamina, energy and skills, to mention a few. This could be an argument for including extraversion as an ability construct. However, this would conflict with the chosen definition of ability consisting of skills and knowledgebase. In order to keep continuity with the previous studies of Siemsen et al. (2008) and Reinholdt et al. (2011), this study chooses to handle extraversion as a supplement to the MOA framework, which also ensures a clear conceptual distinction between knowledge-sharing ability and extraversion. Thus, it is left to others to judge whether extraversion should be categorized as an element of the Capacity construct used by Bloomberg and Pringle (1982). To sum up, it was argued that knowledge is of relevance to all organizations to some degree, where knowledge comes in various forms; common and specialist knowledge as well as knowledge about and knowing how (which was synonymous to Nonaka s (1990) explicit and implicit knowledge). In order to apply knowledge in to creating value, the organization must ensure that its members share the knowledge. This could be done through the development of technical and human systems, where the latter was declared as being the perspective of this study. An important aspect of developing human systems for knowledgesharing is the matter of the ability of the organizational members to share and acquire knowledge. Hence, the dependent variable of the theoretical model used for this study was the knowledge-sharing ability. 17

19 Management concerns regarding knowledge sharing As was emphasized when describing the case for this study, research with regard to managerial aspects of contemporary non-profit organizations still has a lot to investigate. However, what is certain is the fact that for a large part of its workforce, non-profit organizations cannot use the device of monetary incentives to create direction, since they work as volunteers. This was also the case with Lektier Online. This could create cause for much concern if the task of inducing knowledge-sharing and creation of knowledge-sharing ability was viewed from a purely economical point of view, e.g. principal agency theory. Such a point of view would emphasize devices that the organization could use to control the workforce, which would be believed to act out of economical reasons. This could be the case of volunteering with improvement of the C.V. in mind, since this would result in improved signalling towards future employees. Certainly, this is the case to some degree. In the case of Lektier Online, flyers emphasizing the possibility of improving the C.V. for homework assistants are used when recruiting new personnel. However, improving the C.V. does not seem likely to be the sole purpose for getting involved with voluntary work, as will be explained in the following. Motivation: Self-Determination Theory As the motivational foundation for improvement of a person s knowledge-sharing ability, this study is based on Self-Determination Theory due to its proven applicability within contexts of voluntary work and knowledge sharing (Bidee et al., 2012; Reinholdt et. al., 2010). Key characteristics of this theory are especially the facts that it focuses on different types of motivations and is grounded in universalistic needs and poses a connection between humanistic aspects and effectiveness. It also has the strength of being related with other established motivational theories. One of these theories is that of goal-setting, which seeks to explain the connection between conscious goals and performance; in order to perform, challenging and achievable goals must be set (Locke and Latham, 2002). This theory is often used together with Bandura s self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 2001). This posits that the degree to which human beings see themselves able to complete a given assignment has a positive effect on the probability of successfully completing the assignment. Partly overlapping with the theory of self-efficacy is the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which is based on a framework that proposes connections between attitudes, norms and the perceived behavioural control, with these affecting the intention to perform a specific behaviour, which again, influenced by the perceived behavioural control, affects whether a behaviour is performed or not. The reason for choosing self-determination theory as the theory of motivation in the model is the fact that contemporary research recently has been published, which proposes and tests predictions of connections between different kinds of motivation and knowledge-sharing (Gagne, 2009; Reinholdt et al., 2011). At the same time, the structure of self-determination theory, with the distinction between controlled and 18

20 autonomous motivation, proves to be practicable with regards to the overall problematic: the motivation of desired behaviour among volunteers. Elaboration History The historical origins of self-determination theory stem from research on a model of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation proposed by Porter and Lawler in Intrinsic motivation is due to people doing what interests them, while extrinsic motivation derives from when people s actions are merely being instrumental in order to reach certain consequences. However, the model failed to explain an unexpected phenomenon: external remuneration decreased the intrinsic motivation of human beings. This fostered the creation of the Cognitive Evaluation Theory, which seeks to explain the effect of extrinsic motivators on intrinsic motivation. In order to increase the practical applicability and other aspects of cognitive evaluation theory, self-determination theory was formulated. Self-determination theory primarily differentiates itself from cognitive evaluation theory by describing how external motivators can become autonomous motivation through internalization (Gagne& Deci, 2005). Three basic psychological needs For its need perspective on behaviour, self-determination theory borrows from two traditions: Hull and Murray (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Hull contributed with theory about physiological needs which sought to explain actions taken by humans; what humans do they do in attempts to satisfy needs, e.g. the need for food, and this is represented by drives, e.g. hunger. Murray, on the other hand, emphasized psychological needs, which he saw as mostly being acquired through the social environment and the dynamic aspects of the interaction with it. Thus, with self-determination theory being based on innate, psychological needs, it is congruent with Hull s perception of innate needs, and with Murray s in those needs being psychological (Deci and Ryan, 2000). However, self-determination theory also distinguished itself from the Hullian concept of needs: where the physiological needs could be satisfied (for a while), the psychological needs of self-determination theory is constantly sought to be satisfied. The needs of self-determination theory count the need for competence, the need for autonomy and the need for relatedness, where the need for competence represents the proposition that people often engage in activities in order to experience competence; the need for autonomy represents the proposition that people seeks to act from volition and experience integration and freedom; and the need for relatedness represents people s desire to feel connected to other (Deci& Ryan, 2000). An example of need satisfaction could be a homework assistant who experiences competence when giving a pupil homework assistance 19

21 while also feeling related to the other homework colleagues and perhaps the pupil, and finally, acting from volition if the homework assistant likes and values giving homework assistance. Thwarting of the needs can lead to a reduction in the attempts to satisfy the thwarted need and instead lead to attempts of seeking substitutions. E.g. if a person experiences social isolation, that person then might try to seek short term need satisfaction through material objects such as money. This sort of need satisfaction only works in short term, though, leading to e.g. an increased risk of anxiety if long term need satisfaction is not provided through the integrated needs. Besides anxiety, other consequences of thwarted needs come in form of lowered self-efficacy, lower performance, lower physical well-being and general lower mental well-being. On the other hand, need satisfaction is associated with general mental well-being, physical well-being, creativity, higher persistence and increased problem-solving capabilities (Deci& Ryan, 2000). Motivation As mentioned, self-determination theory proposes two general categories of motivation: autonomous and controlled. These two categories vary with regard to the perceived locus of causality (PLOC). The PLOC can either be internal (I-PLOC) or external (E-PLOC). The difference regards whether external factors or internal determines activities. E.g., acting in order to avoid a feeling of guilt or shame, or to achieve monetary remuneration, would be linked to an E-PLOC, while acting due to a personal interest in the activity would be linked to an I-PLOC. The PLOC has consequences for the state of the regulatory style, where style refers to the type of motivation that regulates behaviour, e.g. could behaviour be controlled by money in case of an external regulatory style. The type of PLOC is not static, but can shift due to changing circumstances or choices made by the individual. An example is an activity which is originally carried out due to a personal interest in the activity such as finding an activity interesting which, as mentioned, would be accompanied by an I-PLOC. However, if external rewards are introduced there could be a shift to E-PLOC which could result in a corresponding shift in motivation from autonomous to controlled motivation, since the individual could go from viewing himself as the origin of behaviour to viewing some part of the context it could be a manager who rewards appropriate behaviour as the origin, thus reducing the individual to a pawn acting out the desired behaviour of others (Deci& Ryan, 2000). The regulatory styles can be divided into six categories that vary with regard to the degree of autonomous motivation. At one extreme is amotivation. This form of motivation represents non-valued behaviour done without intention and a sense of personal causation. The next category is external regulation. While being motivated, behaviour done due to external regulation is still controlled motivation. External regulation is 20

22 the type of motivation that was originally contrasted to intrinsic motivation, and it was practised by the use of external rewards or punishments. An example of external regulation is e.g. monetary remuneration, since the activity that is carried out is determined by the form of payment. Being a less controlling type of motivation than the external, the introjected regulation style motivates behaviour that is contingent upon ego-involvement and self-esteem. Thus, while this regulatory style is not associated with external rewards or punishments, it still has an external locus in form of dependence upon approval from others or some self-upholding ideal and is associated with feelings of pressure. Riding a bicycle in order to gain the approval of one s parents is an example of this regulatory style. The identified regulation represents a more autonomous type of motivation. While still being extrinsically motivated, behaviours due to the actor identifying with the consequence of the behaviour, are being seen as autonomously motivated since they are carried out with an experience of being the origin of the activity. A homework assistant at Lektier Online is regulated by the identified style if he/she sees it as an important task to help pupils from marginalized groups become better educated. The most autonomous form of extrinsic motivation is integrated regulation. Here, the value of the outcome of the activity is integrated into one s own values. So if a homework assistant truly value equal opportunities for everybody, assisting marginalized pupils with their homework is an example of behaviour due to integrated regulation. Representing the purest form of autonomous motivation is intrinsic motivation. This type of motivation is represented by behaviour that is due to the experience of the behaviour itself, which means the individual would be willing to do it without any form of external reward. The homework assistant from Lektier Online would be intrinsically motivated, if he provided the homework assistance because he enjoyed the process of giving it. If compared, the integrated and the intrinsic form of regulations remind of each other with regards to point of origin of action, since both represent truly self-determined actions (Ryan & Deci, 2000). However, differences still remain: activities caused by integrated regulation are still carried out with the intention of some separate consequence, while the intrinsic regulated action is done due to the experience of the action itself. Central to the concepts of regulatory styles and, as mentioned earlier, perceived locus of causality, is the process of internalization. Rather than being static, various forms of values and regulations can shift through the regulative categories, either becoming more autonomous or more controlled. At the same 21