Antecedents of Employees' Knowledge Sharing Intentions: An Integrated Perspective of Interpersonal Trust and Conflicts

Facilitating knowledge sharing among employees across different units in an organization is crucial in terms of facilitating collaboration for developing competitive advantages. While a significant numbers of previous studies have examined the facilitating and inhibiting factors of knowledge sharing among employees in organizations, very few of them have empirically examined the individual effects of different types of interpersonal conflicts on interpersonal trust and, consequently, on their knowledge sharing intentions. Data collected from 224 employees of organizations in the manufacturing industry in Taiwan was analyzed to examine the proposed theoretical model using the technique of component-based structural equation modeling. The results indicate that both relationship and task conflicts have significant indirect effects on employees’ knowledge sharing intentions via interpersonal trust. The theoretical and practical implications of this work are discussed.