PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ATTITUDE TOWARD KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Oleh:

Ida Juliana Hutasuhut

This Project submitted to comply with the requirement of Master of Science in Human Resource Development

Faculty of Cognitive Science and Human Development UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA SARAWAK

2007

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor Encik

Rizal Abu Bakar who has sacrificed so much time in giving his critical review, suggestion,

support, guidance and motivation throughout this study until last minutes before his departure for

further study in Australia. I also wish to convey my gratitude to my second supervisor Dr.

Shahren Ahmad Zaidi Adruce who generously has transferred his knowledge and expertise in

the area of knowledge management. He also gives constructive suggestion, support, and guidance

throughout this study. I consider myself really fortunate having opportunity to work under the

supervision of dedicated supervisors like them.

I also wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all other lecturers in the Faculty of Cognitive

Science and Human Development for their generous advice and suggestions. I am also grateful to

the librarians in the Centre for Academic Information Services for their assistance to get access to

the materials whenever required.

Last but not least, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to all who have contributed to the

successful completion of this study. My appreciation also goes to all my friends who have

encouraged and supported me during the process of completing this study.

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ABSTRACT

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTIC AND ATTITUDE TOWARD KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Ida Juliana Hutasuhut

This study attempts to look at knowledge management by taking individuals as the centre of attention. The individual as creator, custodian, sharer, manager and user of knowledge is a key determinant factor that ensures the success of knowledge sharing in organizatio, n; 'Therefore, there must be a reason behind the option of why they should share their knowledge. This study focuses on personality traits (conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience and extraversion) of the individual with regard to his/her willingness to share knowledge. Although this is very important, unfortunately there are limited studies that examine personality traits toward knowledge sharing; 'The objective of this study is to examine whether there is a relationship between personality traits and attitude toward knowledge sharing.

This study was conducted in University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas). The unit of analysis is the lecturers from various faculties. A stratified random sampling method was used in the selection of respondents. There are 96 lecturers from various faculties that were selected for this study. Data was collected by using The Big Five Inventory (BFI) to examine the personality traits, and questionnaire to examine respondent's attitude toward knowledge sharing.

The finding suggested that there is a positive and moderate relationship between personality and attitude toward knowledge sharing. Specifically, result on conscientiousness and agreeableness are positively and moderately related to attitude toward knowledge sharing. Result on openness to experience arjd-extraversion are positively and weakly related to attitude toward knowledge sharing. Finall} result on neuroticism is negatively and weakly related to attitude toward knowledge sharing. It is expected that results from this study could contribute toward the literature on personality, knowledge management, HR practices (personnel selection or recruitment), training and team building in organization. The limitation, implication and recommendation for future study are also discussed.

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ABSTRAK

KARAKTERISTIK PRIBADI DAN SIKAP KEPADA PENGKONGSIAN PENGETAHUAN

Ida Juliana Hutasuhut

Kajian ini meliputi usaha untuk melihat bidang pengurusan maklumat melalui tumpuan kepada individu. Individu sebagai pembina/pencipta, penjaga, 'sharer', pengurus dan

pengguna/pengamal pengetahuan merupakan kunci dalam menentukan kejayaan perkongsian pengetahuan dalam sesebuah organisasi. Oleh itu, terdapat sebab di sebalik setiap pilihan sama ada seseorang individu patut mengkongsikan pengetahuannya. Kajian ini berfokus kepada tret kepribadian (mempunyai kesedaran, berpendapat sama, neurotik, keterbukaan dan ekstraversi) seorang individu dengan melihat kesediaannya untuk berkongsi pengetahuan. Sungguhpun

penting, tetapi kajian terhadap perhubungan personaliti fret dan perkongsian pengetahuan adalah agak terhad. Objektif kajian adalah untuk menguji sama ada terdapat perhubungan antara karakteristik pribadi dan sikap kepada perkongsian pengetahuan.

Kajian ini dilakukan di Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas). Responden kajian ini adalah terdiri daripada pensyarah dari pelbagai fakulti di Unimas. Kaedah persampelan

-yang digunakan adalah Stratified random sampling. Terdapat 96 orang pensyarah terlibat dalam kajian ini. Data telah dikumpul menggunakan "The Big Five Inventory (BFI) " untuk menguji tret keperibadian dan borang soal selidik digunakan untuk mengkaji sikap responden terhadap perkongsian pengetahuan.

Hasil kajian mendapati bahwa terdapat hubungan yang posit if dan sederhana antara kepribadian dan sikap kepada perkongsian pengetahuan di kalangan pensyarah di Unimas. Secara spesifik, hasil kajian dari aspek kepribadian mempunyai kesedaran dan berpendapat

sama mempunyai hubungan yang positif dan sederhana dengan sikap kepada perkongsian pengetahuan. Hasil daripada keterbukaan dan ekstraversi pula mempunyai hubungan yang positif dan lemah dengan sikap kepada perkongsian pengetahuan. Terakhir sekali, dapatan dari

aspek kepribadian bersifat neurotik didapati rnempunyai hubungan yang negatif dan lemah dengan sikap kepada perkongsian pengetahuan. Hasil kajian dijangka akan rnenyumhang kepada literatur dalam bidang personaliti, pengurusan maklumat, pengamal sumber manusia (pernilihan dan pengambilan), latihan dan pembentukan kumpulan dalam organisasi. Limitasi, implikasi dan cadangan untuk pengkaji akan datang juga turut dibincangkan.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT ABSTRAK TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES FIGURE

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

1.2 Statement of the Problem

1.3 Objectives of the Study

1.4 Research Question

1.5 Conceptual Framework

1.6 Definition of Term

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

2.1 Personality Theory

2.1.1 Psychodynamic Theory

2.1.2 Humanistic Theories

2.1.3 Social Cognitive Theories

2.1.4 Trait Theory

2.2 Knowledge Management (KM)

2.2.1 Historical Overview

2.2.2 Data, Information and Knowledge

2.2.3 Knowledge Management Processes

2.2.4 Organizational Knowledge Creation

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2.3 Attitudes

2.3.1 Concepts of Attitudes

2.3.2 Components of Attitude

2.3.3 Formation of Attitudes

2.3.4 Theory of Reasoned Action

2.4 Previous Research

2.4.1 Relationship between Personality and Knowledge Sharing

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

Introduction

Research Design

Location and Sampling

Data Collection Techniques

Research Instrument

Data Analysis

3.5.1 Reliability of Instrument

3.5.2 Validity of Instrument

3.5.3 Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient (p)

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CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS

4.0 Introduction 51

4.1 Total Respondent Rate 51

4.2 Respondent Demography 52

4.3 Answer to Research Questions 52

4.3.1 Is there a relationship between personality traits and attitudes toward 52

knowledge sharing?

4.3.2 Is there a relationship between conscientiousness and attitudes toward 53

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knowledge sharing?

4.3.3 Is there a relationship between agreeableness and attitudes toward 54

knowledge sharing?

4.3.4 Is there a relationship between neuroticism and attitudes toward 55

knowledge sharing?

4.3.5 Is there a relationship between openness to experience and attitudes toward 55

knowledge sharing?

4.3.6 Is there a relationship between extraversion and attitudes toward 56

knowledge sharing?

CHAPTER V: RESULT AND DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, SIGNIFICANT OF THE

STUDY, LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.0 Introduction 57

5.1 Result and Discussion 57

5.1.1 Relationship between personality traits and attitudes toward knowledge 57

sharing?

5.1.2 Relationship between conscientiousness and attitudes toward knowledge 58

sharing?

5.1.3 Relationship between agreeableness and attitudes toward knowledge 58

sharing?

5.1.4 Relationship between neuroticism and attitudes toward knowledge sharing? 59

5.1.5 Relationship between openness to experience and attitudes toward 59

knowledge sharing?

5.1.6 Relationship between extraversion and attitudes toward knowledge 60

sharing?

5.2. Conclusion 62

5.3 Significance of the Study 63

5.3.1 Significance for Literature 63

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5.3.1.1 Significant for Literature on Personality Traits and Knowledge

Management

5.3.1.1 Significant for Literature on Culture and Personality Traits

5.3.2 Significance for Practitioners

5.3.2.1 Significance for Personnel Selection

5.3.2.2 Significance for Team Building

5.3.2.3 Significance for Human Resources Policy

5.3.2.4 Significance for Educational Institution

5.4 Limitation and Recommendation

5.4.1 Data Collection Technique

5.4.2 More Comprehensive Study

5.4.3 Contribution for Literature

5.4.4 Sample Size

5.4.5 Mediating or Moderating Variables

5.4.5 Cultural Aspect

REFERENCE

APPENDICES

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

This study tries to examine whether there is a relationship between personal characteristics with

the attitude toward knowledge sharing. Personality as one of the individual characteristic exists as

a major factor that distinguishes people from others. Understanding personality is one of the most

important challenges for individual in order to know one self and others. Therefore, people as a

social being need to learn how to interact with people, need to analyze others characteristics, try

to understand what others thinking and feeling, and attempt to predict others responses.

Personality refers to the relatively stable pattern of behaviors and consistent internal states that

explain a person's behavioral tendencies (McShane, 2005). According to Al-Ghazali (as cited in

Raba, 2001), the human being or the human personality is made of self, body, heart, soul and

intellect; all these five elements make up an integrated personality. Many studies have been

conducted by researchers to understand personality.

With the intention of understanding factors that influence individual personality, psychologists

nowadays are interested in understanding how heredity and environment affect personalities and

mental abilities (Bronfrenbenner & Ceci, 1994, Dannefer & Perlmutter, 1990, as cited in

Zimbardo, Johnson & Weber, 2006). Individuals can be caused exclusively by the environment,

but many physical and psychological traits are likely to arise from a combination of both nature

I

(innate factors) and nurture (experience), (Nairne, 2003). They recognized that nature and

nurture are interrelated. They interact dynamically. Heredity establishes potential, but experience

determines how the potential will be realized - nature proposes, and nurture disposes (Zimbardo,

Johnson & Weber, 2006).

In today's knowledge based economy, appropriate knowledge management ability is a critical

factor to maintain distinctive core competencies of an organization (DeTienne, Dyer, Hoopes &

Harris, 2004; Hinds & Pfeffer, 2003). Knowledge is considered to be the most important

resource (Conner & Prahalad, 1996; Grant, 1996; Nahapiet & Ghosal, 1998; Pettigrew & Whip,

1993, as cited in Hoof & Ridder, 2004). Many organizations have concluded that effective

knowledge sharing is the crucial way to lever their core competencies and gain competitive

advantage (Gold, Malhotra, & Segars, 2001, as cited in Lee & Lin, 2004).

In the organizational context, employees take their talent (knowledge) away with them when they

are off duty, when they are transferred to another department, when they are dismissed and/or

when they resign and leave a company. If these employees do not share and transfer their

knowledge, loss of potential human capital (i. e. intangible assets) could be incurred (Yang,

2004). The effective management of this resource is, consequently, one of the most important

challenges of the organizations (Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Drucker, 1993; Hansen, Nohria &

Tierney 1999, as cited in Hooff & Ridder, 2004).

Managing knowledge requires understanding of how the knowledge acquire, transfer and used to

produce innovative products or services that affect organizational competitiveness. Management

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need to exceedingly concern that people is the key to a successful knowledge management (KM).

Establishing knowledge sharing environment are encouraged in which employees share their

knowledge to solve problem and furthermore to develop organizational core competencies.

Sharing knowledge between individuals and departments is considered to be a crucial process

(O'Dell & Grayson, 1998, Osterloh & Frey, 2000, as cited in Hoof & Ridder, 2004) and becomes

a critical step for organizational knowledge creation to take place. So, knowledgeable worker

who are willing to share their knowledge will be a critical factor in the coming years.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Understanding employee personalities will make a significant difference in the way the

organization approach, persuade, and motivate their employees on how the work should be

performed. Although many researchers have studied personality traits and the relationship with

variety of managerial and organizational factors, so far, there are not many empirical studies

recorded in area of knowledge management that focused on people.

Organizations are now realizing that technology is not a fix-all solution, knowledge management

has begun shifting its focus to people (Poole, 2000, as cited in DeTienne et al, 2004). People as

the creators, transferors, and users of knowledge (DeTienne et al., 2004) are the key resource to

ensure the success of knowledge management program in an organization. Karl-Erik Sveiby, a

KM expert, said that: "I believe that only a people focused approach to KM will be competitive

long-term, because at the end of the day, any IT solution can easily be copied by competitors

(O'Dell & Grayson, 1998, as cited in DeTienne et al., 2004). Moreover, the deep, tacit

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knowledge that is the root of human thought and action cannot be replicated or replaced by

information and communication technologies (Walsham, 2001).

According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), sharing tacit knowledge among multiple individuals

with different backgrounds, perspectives, and motivations becomes a critical step for

organizational knowledge creation to take place. Individuals have options to share their

knowledge. In contrast to sharing, is hoarding knowledge, which could occur when employees do

not feel that their sharing will be reciprocated (Yang, 2004). Why they should share their

knowledge? It is mainly depending on the attitude they hold towards the behavior of sharing

knowledge (Kwok & Gao, 2005). Although this area seems important, unfortunately there are

limited studies examine the aspects of personal characteristic and attitude toward knowledge

sharing. Therefore, this study set to explore the relationship between personality traits and

attitude toward knowledge sharing.

According to the theory of "Reason Action" (Kwok & Gao, 2005; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), an

individual's intention to perform a behavior and their actual behavior can be determined by their

attitude toward this behavior. Ruggles (1998) noted that the biggest difficulty in managing

knowledge is to change people's behavior. It is believed that an individual attitude toward a

certain behavior can influence their intention to perform such sharing behavior and further affect

actual work performance (Kwok & Gao, 2005; Ajzen & Fishbein 1980). Individuals are usually

more likely to perform a behavior if they possess positive attitude toward this behavior and vice

versa (Kwok & Gao, 2005).

4

Organization need to consider the characteristics of employees who have a positive attitude

toward knowledge sharing that can most effectively facilitate knowledge management. Many

organizational variables have been extensively analyzed and discussed in the literature; however

personal characteristics, which are equally crucial, have been neglected in knowledge

management field. Personality as a major component of individual characteristic should have a

role in constructing attitude toward certain behavior, include knowledge sharing. Despite the

growing interest in personality and the growing evidence that personality influences work attitude

(Judge, Heller et al., 2002; as cited in Matzler, Renzl, Mooradian & von Krogh 2006, ) and

behavior (Matzler et. al., 2006; Barrick & Mount 1991), the exact mechanisms by which

personality affect organizational behavior (attitude toward knowledge sharing) are not well

understood (Raja, John et al., 2004, as cited in Matzler et. al., 2006). This study focus on

personality traits, which is known as the big five that consist of conscientiousness, agreeableness,

neuroticism, openness to experience and extraversion. These personality traits should have

correlation with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

Traits are the units of personality that have predictive value. Traits exist as determiners of

behavior (Cattel, 1979, as cited in Cloninger, 2004). Thus, it is reasonable to expect that

personality traits influence personal values and attitudes (Olver & Mooradian, 2003) however the

exact mechanisms by which personality affect organizational behavior are not well understood

(Raja, John et al., 2004 as cited in Matzler et. al., 2006).

Conscientiousness is associated with industriousness, perseverance, and sense of duty

(Bonzionelos, 2004). Conscientious workers achieve more and set higher goals (Barrick &

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Mount, 1991; Barrick, Mount & Strauss, 1993). Meta-analytic studies suggest that

conscientiousness is the most potent and consistent correlate of job performance across all types

of jobs and occupations (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Mount & Barrick, 1995; Salgado, 1997; as

cited in Bonzionelos, 2004).

Individuals who are high in conscientiousness feel capable and effective in their field. This

feeling could become basic foundation for them to confident in sharing knowledge. Empirical

studies also found positive relationships between conscientiousness and organizational

citizenship behavior (Organ, 1994; as cited in Matzler et. al., 2006), i. e. the individual

contributions that go beyond role requirements and contractually rewarded job achievements

(Organ & Ryan, 1995; as cited in Matzler et. al., 2006). Thus, it could be assumed that employees

with high levels of conscientiousness will be more willing to share their knowledge with others

and to contribute to organizational success (Matzler et. al., 2006).

Agreeableness, which describes people as compliant, soft-hearted and good natured tend to avoid

tenses and disagreement in the workplace (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Agreeable individuals are

altruistic, sympathetic, and eager to help others, and that they strive for cooperation rather than

competition (liao & Chuang, 2004; as cited in Matzler et. al., 2006).

Agreeableness is also a variable which could be expected to have correlation with attitudes

toward knowledge sharing, since employees with high score on agreeableness will prioritize

cooperativeness with others. Agreeableness, which describes people as altruism also persuade

them to share their knowledge. In other word, they will tend to avoid being selfish.

6

Neuroticism encompasses characteristics that include excessive worry, pessimism, low

confidence, and tendencies to experience negative emotions. Because of their tendency to

interpret experiences under negative light, individuals who score high on neuroticism should be

less likely to develop positive attitudes towards their work (Bonzionelos, 2004). Indeed,

empirical evidence suggests that neuroticism is negatively related to the tendency to be goal-

oriented (Malouff, Schutte, Bauer, Mantelli, 1990). Therefore, individuals who score high on

neuroticism could be linked with negative attitudes towards knowledge sharing, since people

with this characteristic tend to have lack of trust in people. People who have low confidence,

excessive worry and pessimism could be predicted to interpret sharing knowledge as a thing that

may reduce or jeopardize their job security.

Openness to experience includes multiplicity of interests, receptivity of new ideas, flexibility of

thought, inventiveness, and the tendency to develop idealistic ideas and goals (Bonzionelos,

2004). Therefore, individuals who score high on openness should be more likely to share their

knowledge because they will agree with the concept that knowledge increases in value when it is

shared (Sawhney & Prandelli, 2000, cited in Yang, 2004). Those who share knowledge can refine

their shared knowledge by the interactive dialog process: those who shared knowledge can obtain

knowledge from sharers. Consequently, the outcomes would be multiplied beneficially among all

parties. These person also perceive that their work can serve as an arena to entertain their

curiosity, their appetite for exploring new perspectives and their tendency to develop genuine

interest for any activities they are involved in (Yang, 2004).

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Finally, extroversion which describes people with friendly, fun loving, affectionate and talkative

(McCrae & Costa, 1987; cited in Cloninger, 2004), sociability, assertiveness, social dominance,

ambition, tendencies towards action, sensation-seeking, and the experience of positive affect

(Bonzionelos, 2004). Therefore individuals who score high on extraversion is expected to

correlate to positive attitudes toward knowledge sharing since they should be more likely to

possess the need to occupy a central position in their work environment so they can satisfy their

ambitious and domineering tendencies (Bonzionelos, 2004).

1.3 Objectives of the Study

General Objective

The general objective of this study is to examine whether "there is relationship between

personality traits and attitude toward knowledge sharing ".

Specific Objectives

The specific research objectives (RO) are set to examine whether there is relationship between:

RO1: conscientiousness with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

R02: agreeableness with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

R03: neuroticism with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

R04: openness to experience with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

R05: extraversion with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

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1.4 Research Question

The general research question (RQ) of this study: "is there a relationship between personality

traits with attitude toward knowledge sharing ".

The specific research questions are set to identify: is there a relationship between

RQ 1: conscientiousness with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

RQ2: agreeableness with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

RQ3: neuroticism with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

RQ4: openness to experience with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

RQ5: extraversion with attitude toward knowledge sharing.

1.5 Conceptual Framework

Personality Traits:

Conscientiousness

Agreeableness

Neuroticism f> Attitude toward

Knowledge Sharing

Openness to Experience

Extraversion

Figure 1: Framework of the study: relationship between personality traits and attitude toward knowledge sharing

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1.6 Definition of Term

Personality

Conceptual:

Personality refers to the relatively stable pattern of behaviors and consistent internal states that

explain a person's behavioral tendencies (McShane, 2004).

Operational:

Personality is the relatively stable pattern which permits prediction of a person behavior in the

certain situations. In this study, the personality had subsumed by the "Big Five"

(Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to experience and extraversion) from

a large number of traits.

Personality Trait

Conceptual:

Personality trait is defined as characteristics of an individual that exerts pervasive influence on a

broad range of trait-relevant responses (Ajzen, 2005).

Operational:

Personality trait is the primary unit of individual's characteristics which permits prediction of

individual's behavior in a certain situations.

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Conscientiousness

Conceptual:

Conscientiousness is associated with industriousness, perseverance, and sense of duty

(Bonzionelos N. 2004).

Operational:

Conscientiousness is personality trait that is characterized by organized, reliability, persistence,

ambitious and goal-directedness. This person has high self control over impulses to achieve and

to act in a directed manner.

Agreeableness

Conceptual:

Agreeableness "includes the traits of being cautious, good-natured, emphatic and caring. Some

scholars prefer the label of "friendly compliance" for this dimension, with its opposite being

"hostile noncompliance". People with low agreeableness tend to be uncooperative, short

tempered and irritable (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005).

Operational:

Person that characterized with high in agreeableness has a tendency to accommodate to the

wishes and needs of others, while person low in agreeableness tends to provide to his or her own

personal priorities.

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Neuroticism

Conceptual:

Neuroticism characterizes people with high levels of anxiety, hostility, depression and self-

consciousness. Neuroticism also describes people who frequently are troubled by negative

emotions such as worry and insecurity (McCrae & Costa, 1992).

Operational:

Person that characterized with high neuroticism will tend to emotionally unstable, low self-

esteem and easily insecure with their colleagues or friends. Furthermore, they will lose temper

easily and usually being labeled as "emotional person". For those who has characterized as low

neuroticism are described as calm, well adjusted, capable of dealing with new or complicated

situation without excessive emotional reactions.

Openness to experience

Conceptual:

People with high openness to experience is describe with attribute such as imaginative, cultured,

curious, original, broad-minded, intelligent, and artistically sensitive (Barrick & Mount, 1991).

Operational:

Employees that characterized with high level of openness to experience will tend to share their

creative ideas among their colleague and managerial levels. At the same time, they are also ready

to accept the ideas from others and prefer to become more flexible in the ways they do things. By

contrast, those who are low in openness to experience prefer to reserve in compliance to accept

new and unconventional ideas. They feel comfortable with concrete and familiar situations.

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Extraversion

Conceptual:

Extraversion characterizes people who are outgoing, talkative, sociable and assertive. The

opposite is introversion, which refers to those who are quite, shy and cautious. Introverts do not

necessarily lack social skills. Rather, they are more inclined to direct their interests to ideas than

to social events. Introverts feel quite comfortable being alone, whereas extraverts do not. (Mc

Shane & Von Glinow, 2005).

Operational:

Employees that labeled as extraversion are sociable, energetic, enthusiastic, dominant, and

talkative. Introverted people tend to be shy, retiring, submissive and quite. They tend to prefer

working alone, quite, serious, and being a private person who may prefer writing or e-mail to

talking with co-workers.

Attitude

Conceptual:

According to Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), attitudes can be described as a learned predisposition to

respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object. The

definition above implies that attitude is learned behavior to respond or act in either a favorable or

unfavorable manner towards an object. The responses are consistent.

Operational:

Attitude means as a consistent tendency to perform a behavior towards some degree of favour or

disfavor object. The word object may refer to the issues, actions, behavior, practices or events.

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Knowledge Sharing

Conceptual:

McDermott (1999, as cited in Riege, 2005) describes the process of "knowledge sharing" as

enabling sharers to guide sharees through sharers' thinking and/or using their insights to assist

sharees to examine their own situations.

Operational:

Knowledge sharing involves the processes through which knowledge is channeled between a

source and a recipient. The objective of any knowledge-sharing process is to transfer source

knowledge successfully to a recipient.

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

This chapter will review theories on personality, traits and the big five, knowledge management,

organizational knowledge creation, and concepts of attitudes. This literature review serves as the

references for this research.

2.1 Personality Theory

Two thousand years before academic psychology appeared, people were classifying each other

according to four temperaments, based on a theory proposed by the Greek physician Hippocrates.

According to Hippocrates a person's temperament resulted from the balanced of the four

humors, or fluids, secreted by the body (Cloninger, 2004). A sanguine, or cheerful, person was

characterized by strong, warm blood. A choleric temperament, marked by anger, came from

yellow bile (called choler), believed to flow from the liver. Hippocrates thought that the liver also

produced black bile, from which arose a melancholic, or depressed, temperament. Finally, if the

body's dominant fluid is phlegm, or mucus, this person will have a phlegmatic temperament;

cool, aloof, slow, and unemotional (Cloninger, 2004).

Since the days of Hippocrates, certain scholars in the fields of psychology and counseling were

more concerned with the investigation of human behavior and personality types and traits. Some

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of them were Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychodynamic theory, Carl Rogers and Abraham

Maslow with the humanistic theories, and Albert Bandura with social-cognitive theory. Gordon

Allport and Raymond Cattell were very well-known figures in the study of personality traits.

Each of them describes personality from a different perspective (Cloninger, 2004).

2.1.1 Psychodynamic Theory

Freud (as cited in Nairne, 2003), believed that human personality consists of three parts: the id,

ego, and super ego. The id seeks immediate satisfaction of innate urges, without concern for the

morals and customs of society, it is called the pleasure principle. Id is the dark side of personality

- the seeker of pleasure - that guarantees survival of the species by motivating a desire for sexual

intercourse. At the same time, people are more than irrational sexual machines. The superego

follows an idealistic principle that encourages people to act in an ideal fashion to act in

accordance with the moral customs defined by parents and culture. Sitting between the forces of

the id and superego, and acting as a mediator is the ego. The ego encourages people to act with

reason and deliberation and help people conform to the requirements of the external world. Ego

obeys a reality principle; it monitors the real world looking for appropriate outlets for the id's

needs, but it also listens intently to the moralistic preaching of the superego. The ego's goal is

compromise among three demanding masters: the external world, the id, and the superego

(Nairne, 2003).

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