IMPACT OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING BEHAVIOR AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COLLECTIVISM ON ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION

Abstract

The highly competitive business environment has necessitated the need for a productive and satisfied workforce. The rising work pressure has led to increased stress and frustration for the employees, and to cope with such a situation; social support is needed. A cordial work culture anchors highly into social relations, where employee learning, well-being, job performance and satisfaction occur. Thus, organizational socialization is vital for existing and newcomer employees. Earlier studies have explained the enterprise-related outcomes of organizational socialization, but less is known about the antecedents that affect or foster the socialization of employees at their workplace. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the impact of knowledge-sharing behavior and psychological collectivism as antecedents on the organizational socialization of employees. The present study examines explicitly how the propensity to demonstrate knowledge-sharing behavior and psychological collectivism help in affecting the employees’ organizational socialization. An effort has been made to analyze how the dimensions of knowledge-sharing behavior (written contribution, organizational communication, personal interaction and communities of practice) and psychological collectivism (preference, reliance, concern, norm acceptance and goal priority) predict employees’ organizational socialization. Furthermore, this research proposes and analyses a model of organizational socialization by examining the mediation effect of psychological collectivism while establishing the relationship between knowledge-sharing behavior and organizational socialization. The current study also investigates the role of demographic variations (gender, age and organizational type) on the employees’ propensity for knowledge-sharing behavior, demonstration of psychological collectivism and organizational socialization. The data for the statistical analysis was gathered from 361 employees working at the senior, middle and junior level job positions from the selected Indian private and public sector enterprises. The organizations whose yearly turnover was more than 100 crore were selected for collecting the data. A self-reported survey questionnaire as a Google form was distributed through WhatsApp and email for data collection. A convenience, non-random, non-probability sampling method with a cross-sectional research design was employed in this research. After the preliminary data screening and testing, the scales used in this study were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and validity and reliability analysis to investigate the factor structure of selected variables. Statistical approaches like correlational analysis, independent iv t-test, one-way ANOVA, multiple hierarchical regressions and Hayes PROCESS macro with bootstrap were applied to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings of the study showed mixed results. It indicated significant differences in gender, age and organizational type concerning the dimensions of knowledge-sharing behavior, psychological collectivism and organizational socialization. Further, the findings suggest that dimensions of knowledge-sharing behavior and psychological collectivism are significant predictors of organizational socialization. Also, while testing the overall impact of knowledge-sharing behavior on the organizational socialization of employees, it was found that psychological collectivism partially mediated the relationship. The findings of the study augment the prevailing literature in different ways. First, the study contributes to the knowledge-sharing behaviour literature by empirically examining a unique and unexplored combination of variables as potential antecedents of organizational socialization, namely, knowledge-sharing behavior and psychological collectivism. Additionally, by supporting the association between psychological collectivism and organizational socialization, this study addressed the scarcity of literature regarding the missing link between psychological collectivism and organizational socialization in the organizational context. The study findings have potential implications for managers and organizations in developing optimistic psychological and HR interventions and practices to upgrade the organizational socialization of the employees. Fostering psychological collectivism might also work as a measure to establish the oneness and collaborative attitude of the employees leading to adequate organizational socialization. This study also validates the instruments in the Indian organizational context, as the importance of measuring the variables in this study cannot be denied. HR professionals, practitioners and behavioral scientists should appreciate the vitality of knowledge-sharing behavior, psychological collectivism and organizational socialization at work in bringing optimistic changes in the employees’ performance and commitment towards the organization as a whole. The results would help encourage top management and HR professionals to foster interactions among employees and allow them to collaborate as a workgroup and achieve tasks.