Affective attachment and knowledge sharing: differences between doctors and nurses
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Data
2018
Autores
Marques, Carlos Peixeira
Leal, Carmem Teresa Pereira
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Editora
Santos, José António C, Santos, Margarida Custódio, Correia, Marisol B and Ramos, Célia
Resumo
This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of knowledge sharing practices, attitudes, and intentions among physicians and registered nurses working for the Portuguese National Health System. According to the Affect Theory of Social Exchange (ATSE), employees engaged in task interaction experierice emotions that they tend to attribute to the team or the organization, which is the basis for organizational attachment. Positive emotional outcomes from the interaction lead to stronger attachments and eventually to behavioural reinforcements. This paper applies ATSE to organizational knowledge sharing by assessing how knowledge exchange behaviours elicit positive emotions leading to affective attachment and intention to further sharing. The model is empirically tested by PLS-SEM on data from a sample of 138 MDs and 167 RNs working at hospitais and primary care facilities integrated in the Portuguese NHS. Results from SmartPLS Multi-Group Analysis (MGA) show that the path exchange to emotions to attachment works in a quite similar way for both groups of professionals. However, only in the case of nurses does organizational attachment influence the intention to future sharing. On the other hand, attitude towards share is the only significant antecedent of physicians' sharing intentions. Besides attachment, current knowledge donation behaviour also favours sharing intentions of nurses, but not doctors. The paper's major contribution is on the theoretical side, by showing the relevancy of ATSE to model the importance of affective factors that may be involved in knowledge sharing. More studies are still necessary in arder to further understand the differences among physicians and nurses regarding the paths leading to sharing.
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Palavras-chave
Knowledge sharing , National health system , Portugal , emotions , attachment