The Mediating Role of Trust and Organizational Commitment in the Relationship between Strategic Human Resource Management and Knowledge Sharing

The main purpose of this research project was to investigate the impact of Strategic Human Resource Management practices on knowledge sharing behavior among university faculty members. This research also studied the mediating role of trust and organizational commitment in the relationship between SHRM practices and knowledge sharing behavior. Following the positivist paradigm, this research adopted the quantitative research strategy and collected the data from 700 faculty members of leading universities (top ranked by Higher Education Commission) of Pakistan through a self-administered questionnaire. Bi-variate and multi-variate quantitative analyses were used to test the hypothesis and achieve the research objectives. Structural Equation Modeling through Smart Partial Least Square was used to test the entire key hypothesis. The findings revealed that SHRM practices are vital in creating knowledge sharing behavior among faculty members, organizational commitment partially mediates the relationship among the aforementioned variables, while trust completely mediates the relationship between HR practices and knowledge sharing behavior. Thus, this study provides sufficient guidelines for HR policymakers and administration of public universities on how to make faculty members more committed to their institution and to develop the culture of knowledge sharing by adopting SHRM practices, while helping employees to have socio-emotional relationships so that trust can be developed among them.