Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

5-2025

Abstract

In today’s dynamic work environment, individual innovation is vital for organizational success. While knowledge sharing is a recognized driver of innovation, less is known about the internal motivational forces that compel employees to share knowledge. Drawing on the role identity theory, this research examines how felt obligation—a normative motivation, whereby individuals, based on their perceived role identities, believe they should care about organizational goals and contribute to them—encourages knowledge sharing and subsequently enhances innovation performance. Furthermore, I theorize that this relationship is strengthened in teams with higher performance goal orientation (TPGO), where norms and expectations regarding performance excellence amplify the enactment of role-consistent behavior. A two-wave survey study was conducted with 154 employees in Chinese companies to test the hypotheses. The findings generally provide support for my theoretical model. In particular, felt obligation leads to innovation performance via knowledge sharing in high performance-oriented teams. However, the indirect effect was non-significant in low performance-oriented teams. The findings contribute to the theoretical literature by (1) identifying felt obligation as a critical individual-level antecedent of knowledge sharing, (2) establishing knowledge sharing as a behavioral mechanism linking felt obligation to innovation performance, and (3) demonstrating the boundary condition of TPGO in shaping this motivational process. The findings further offer some practical implications. First, our results suggest that cultivating employees’ sense of felt obligation can serve as an enduring motivational foundation for knowledge-sharing behaviors. Second, managers should strategically foster performance-oriented team climates, as these environments appear to optimally activate and reinforce the positive effects of felt obligation on knowledge sharing. Third, organizations would benefit from implementing structural supports that systematically facilitate and reinforce obligation-driven knowledge sharing practices throughout the workplace.

Keywords

Felt Obligation, Team Performance Goal Orientation, Knowledge Sharing, Innovation Performance

Degree Awarded

SMU-SJTU Doctor of Business Administration

Discipline

Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Organization Development

Supervisor(s)

LEUNG, Ka Yee

First Page

1

Last Page

97

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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