Bill Kettinger Published in European Journal of Information Systems

For release:  February 5, 2015

Bill Kettinger, Chair of Excellence and professor of MIS, recently had his paper titled "The roles of psychological climate, information management capabilities, and IT support on knowledge-sharing: an MOA perspective" published in European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS). The article is co-authored with Yuan Li, Columbia College, Joshua Davis, College of Charleston, and Lynda Kettinger.

The study used the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework to analyze three factors that drive an individual's knowledge sharing within companies. The three factors analyzed were: physiological climate as motivation; information management capability as ability; and organizational information technology support the opportunity. It found that motivating psychological climate has a primary impact of knowledge sharing and the impact of information management capability on sharing is mediated by the psychological climate. Information technology support has direct influence on information management capabilities, but not on sharing. This was the first study to use the MOA causal network to explain an individual's knowledge sharing behavior. Findings indicate that managers need to consider the pre-requisite roles of IT-enabled opportunities and workers' information management abilities when building an all-important motivating climate that ensures knowledge sharing.