Title: Fostering knowledge sharing through human resource management in R&D teams

Authors: Wan-Yu Chen, Bi-Fen Hsu, Mei-Ling Wang, Yen-Yu Lin

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, TransWorld University, 1221, Jen-Nang Rd., Chia-Tong Li, Douliu, Yunlin 64002, Taiwan. ' Department of Business Administration, National Yunlin University of Science & Technology, 123 University Rd., Sec. 3, Douliou, Yunlin 64002, Taiwan. ' Department of Health-Business Administration, HungKuang University, 34 Chung-Chie Rd., Sha Lu, Taichung, 443, Taiwan. ' Department of Hospitality Management, MingDao University, 369 Wen-Hua Rd., Peetow, ChangHua 52345, Taiwan

Abstract: Within organisations, employees create, accumulate and share knowledge, often within teams. To increase team effectiveness, today|s organisations seek to promote knowledge sharing among their employees. Previous studies of knowledge sharing within organisations have ignored a critical factor: human resource management (HRM). To address this oversight, 52 sets of completed questionnaires from 203 research and development (R&D) employees formed the basis of our empirical analysis, exploring the relationship between HRM and the willingness of team members to share knowledge. We classified team members according to their work values and focused on exploring whether the HRM of teams with different work values would impact knowledge sharing differently. We discuss our findings in terms of their implications for management practices and future research.

Keywords: human resource management; HRM; knowledge sharing; work values; research and development; R&D teams; high-tech industry; high technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2011.038596

International Journal of Technology Management, 2011 Vol.53 No.2/3/4, pp.309 - 330

Published online: 06 Apr 2013 *

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