Social capital and job performance the roles of knowledge sharing knowledge acquisition in social media communities

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business LE DANG PHUONG SOCIAL CAPITAL AND JOB PERFORMANCE: THE ROLES OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING, KNOWLEDE ACQUISITION IN SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITIES ID: 22120102 MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: Dr.LE NHAT HANH Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere thankfulness to my research advisor, Dr Le Nhat Hanh for her time and enthusiasm in guiding me to complete this thesis She has spent all her time in Saturday morning during our preparation for this thesis to help, support and solve hard problems for us I am sure that the thesis would not have finished without her support I also give many thanks to Prof Nguyen Dinh Tho and Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Trang for carefully guiding me in Research and Design subject to help me have enough knowledge to finish this thesis I would like to thank all ISB lecturers and staffs who facilitate necessary knowledge and materials for us to study and finish this course Finally, I would like to give my special thanks for my wife and family for supporting me during my study ABSTRACT Social media professional groups have been developing in recent years Many people come there for seeking for knowledge to solve problems at work However, seeking knowledge on social media professional groups can be difficult because people tend to hoard rather than exchange knowledge to other people This study focuses on social interaction ties, trust, and shared language of the social capital theory to explore which motivations make people to share and acquire knowledge in social media professional groups Besides that, this research go further to investigate how these knowledge affect on job performance Data collected from 207 members of social media professional groups in Ho Chi Minh city of Viet Nam support for the proposed model The results indicate social interaction ties have positive impact on knowledge acquisition Trust and shared language have positive impact on knowledge sharing and knowledge acquisition Besides that the finding also shows that knowledge acquisition has a positive relationship with job performance Keywords: Social capital, social media professional groups, knowledge sharing, knowledge acquisition, Job performance TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Background 1.2 Research Questions and Objectives 10 1.3 Research Delimitation 11 1.4 Research contribution 11 1.5 Thesis Structure 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 12 2.1 Knowledge, Knowledge sharing and Knowledge acquisition 12 2 Social capital theory and knowledge sharing and knowledge acquisition 13 2.3 Social interaction ties 14 2.4 Trust 15 2.5 Shared language 16 2.6 The relationship between knowledge sharing, knowledge acquisition and job performance 17 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Research processes 20 3.2 The unit of observation 21 3.3 Sample: 21 3.4 Measures of the constructs 21 3.4.1 Social interaction ties 21 3.4.2 Trust 22 3.4.3 Shared language 23 3.4.4 Knowledge sharing 23 3.4.5 Knowledge acquisition 24 3.4.6 Job performance 25 3.5 Qualitative research 25 3.6 Quantitative research 26 3.7 Data collection 27 3.8 Data coding 27 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 29 4.1 Respondents’ demographics 29 4.2 Reliability Analysis 31 4.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 34 4.4 Regression Analysis 37 4.4.1 The relationship between social interaction ties, trust, shared language and Knowledge sharing 38 4.4.2 The relationship between social interaction ties, trust, shared language and knowledge acquisition 40 4.4.3 The relationship between knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and Job performance 42 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND LIMITATIONS 46 5.1 Conclusion 46 5.2 Implication 47 5.3 Limitations and future research 48 REFERENCES 50 TABLE OF FIGUIRES Figure 2.7: Research model 19 Figure 3.4: Research processes 20 Figure F1: Histogram of knowledge sharing 74 Figure F2: Normal P-P Plot of knowledge sharing 74 Figure F4: Histogram of knowledge acquisition 75 Figure F5: P-P Plot of knowledge acquisition 75 Figure F6: P-P Scatter Plot of knowledge acquisition 75 Figure F7: Histogram of Job performance 76 Figure F8: Normal P-P Plot of job performance 76 Figure F9: Scatter plot job performance 76 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Scales of Social Interaction Ties 21 Table 3.2: Scales of Trust 22 Table 3.3 : Scales of Shared language 23 Table 3.4: Scales of Knowledge sharing 23 Table 3.5: Scales of acquisition 24 Table 3.6: Scales of Job performance 25 Table 4.1: Respondents’ demographics 30 Table 4.2: Cronbach’s Alpha 32 Table 4.3: KMO and Bartlett's Test 34 Table Rotated Component Matrix 36 Table 4.6: Results of Pearson correlations 38 Table 4.7: Model Summary of social interaction ties, trust and shared language to knowledge sharing 38 Table 4.8: ANOVA of social interaction ties, trust and shared language to knowledge sharing 39 Table 4.9: Coefficients of social interaction ties, trust and shared language to knowledge sharing 39 Table 4.10: Model Summary of social interaction ties, trust and shared language to knowledge acquisition 41 Table 4.11: ANOVA of social interaction ties, trust and shared language to knowledge acquisition 41 Table 4.12: Coefficients of social interaction ties, trust and shared language to knowledge acquisition 41 Table 4.13: Model Summary of knowledge sharing and knowledge acquisition to job performance 43 Table 4.14: ANOVA of knowledge sharing and knowledge acquisiton to job performance 43 Table 4.15: Coefficients of knowledge sharing and knowledge acquisiton to job performance 43 Table 4.16: Summary of hypotheses testing 45 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Background The development of internet has made human being’s life change The development of technology applied on the internet and the popular use of the internet in recent years have led to a communication revolution (Massari, 2010; Coyle, 2008) This communication revolution has made a change in people communication (Coyle, 2008) Social networking sites are established and developed strongly in the trend of this revolution (Moqbel, Nevo, & Kock, 2012) The expansion of online social networking tools creating an “unprecedented levels of personal connection and communication which transcend time and distance limitations” (North, 2010, p 192) Many people use SNSs for entertainment or meet other people Kuss and Griffiths (2011) report that Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are social networks where users can “create individual public profiles, interact with real-life friends, and meet other people based on shared interests” (p 3528) People take part in social networks, especially in social media professional groups for accessing knowledge, experiences, and skills to find solution for work (Chiu, Hsu, and Wang, 2006) Hof, Browder, and Elstrom (1997) say that 42% of social media professional groups members state it relate to their profession Massari (2010) claims that SNSs such as: Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Orkut, YouTube, LinkedIn can involve in both business and personal environments, and help members to improve business and decline costs, to support learning, to connect with friends and interact with each other Furthermore, Bennett, Owers, Pitt, and Tucker (2010) report that the benefits of SNSs usage in the workplace can improve collective knowledge, and increase effectiveness SNSs are also very popular in Viet Nam Pham (2013) emphasizes that Viet Nam is the leading country in using internet in ASEAN area Facebook, Zing Me, and YouTube, LinkedIn are the most popular ones Social media professional groups are also established as a trend of development of the SNSs They are related to careers and specific benefit of one’s groups Social media professional groups allow creating and developing company’s profile, advertising products or disclosing helpful information about companies Marketers know how to connect with customers and get feedback from customers to create wonderful achievements for themselves in social media professional groups (“Building strategic online marketing,” 2013) 36% of Viet Nam internet users are members of SNSs (Cimigo, 2011) People use SNSs for many different purposes According to InfoQ Viet Nam (2013), people use SNSs for keeping contact with friends (97%), updating information (75%), expanding new relationship (56%), solving problem at workplace (47%) According to “Surprised advantage of SNSs,” (2013), Social media professional groups can help people to be better in many fields For example, YouTube can teach people how to cook, make clothes, or offer basic knowledge in many areas that people concern Moreover, they are channels to access information in order to serve for working and learning Moreover, according to “Advantage of SNSs” (2014), people use SNSs to introductions to business people whom known to their contacts Cuong Nguyen Cao, a lecturer of University of Social Sciences, and Humanities, says that he uses SNSs to share his material and lectures and this receives the good feedback from students He emphasizes that it is very useful for students to interact and learn from each other Tham Trinh Thi, a student of University of Social Sciences, and Humanities, comments that SNSs are very helpful for students, they can share knowledge and learn from classmates In addition, comments of other students help to create many interesting ideas to solve problems In summary, people participate in social media professional groups, mainly for entertainment or gaining and exchanging knowledge This paper focuses on the facet of gaining and sharing knowledge in social media communities Knowledge plays a very important role in operating and developing a company According to Berman, Down, and Hill (2002), knowledge is very important and valuable intangible resource in acquiring competitive advantage that many organizations try to get it to meet their business needs and goals Knowledge exchanging among members is important to improve performance (Huang, Liu, & Warden, 2005; Käser & Miles, 2002) However, an individual may keep knowledge for themselves rather than share to the others because knowledge is valuable and important for them to create competitive advantages with their colleagues (Osterloh & Frey, 2000) According to Chiu et al., (2006), “the biggest challenge in fostering a virtual community is the supply of knowledge, namely the willingness to share knowledge with other members” (p 1873) Therefore, this paper will collect data and use social capital theory to identify factors that affect on people behavior to share and acquire knowledge in social media professional groups and then continue to identify how this knowledge affect on job performance Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) basically define social capital theory with three dimensions: structural, relational, and cognitive The structural dimension of social capital displays through social interaction ties, the relational dimension displays 62 not take advantage of others even when the opportunity arises Members in the social media professional groups will 6 always keep the promises they make to one another Members in the social media professional groups would knowingly anything to disrupt the conversation Members in the social media professional groups behave in a consistent manner Members in the social media professional groups are truthful in dealing with one another The members in the social media professional groups 10 use common terms or jargons Members in the social media professional groups use 11 understandable communication pattern during the discussion Members in the social media professional groups use 12 understandable narrative forms to post messages or articles The knowledge shared by members in the social media 13 professional groups is relevant to the topics The knowledge shared by members in the social media 14 professional groups is easy to understand 63 The knowledge shared by members in the social media 15 professional groups is accurate The knowledge shared by members in the social media 16 professional groups is complete The knowledge shared by members in the social media 17 professional groups is reliable The knowledge shared by members in the social media 18 professional groups is timely I can always acquire working experience or know-how 19 from other group members in social media professional groups I can always acquire the ways to solve problems from 20 other group members at my request in social media professional groups Other group members always try to share their 21 expertise from their education or training with me in a more effective way in social media professional groups 22 I believe I am an effective employee 23 I am happy with the quality of my work output 24 My manager believes I am an efficient worker My colleagues believe I are a very productive 25 employee 64 III Section C: Personal information Gender Time of working Male < year Female -3 years >3-5 years > years Career Age: Staff office 40 years old Student 65 Appendix C: Questionnaire (Vietnamese version) BẢNG KHẢO SÁT Xin chào Anh/Chị, Lê Đăng Phương, học viên Cao học Viện Đào tào Quốc tế - Trường Đại học Kinh tế Tp.HCM Hiện Phương thực luận văn Thạc sỹ với đề tài "Nhân tố ảnh hưởng đến việc chia kiến thức Nhóm chun mơn/ngành nghề (1) mạng xã hội tác động tới công việc” Phương mong anh/chị dành chút thời gian giúp Phương hoàn thành khảo sát Chân thành cảm ơn giúp đỡ anh/chị (1) Nhóm ngành nghề/cùng chun mơn nhóm nghề nghiệp – professional groups (sau gọi tắt nhóm) mạng xã hội nhóm tạo với mục đích chia thơng tin, kiến thức, kinh nghiệm,, kỹ năng… để giúp thành viên giải vấn đề cơng việc Mọi góp ý/thắc mắc Anh/chị, vui lòng liên hệ với Phương qua địa email: phuongld81@gmail.com SĐT: 0989 231 296 I Câu hỏi định hướng Anh/Chị có tham gia Nhóm ngành nghề/cùng chun mơn/nhóm nghề nghiệp (sau gọi tắt Nhóm) mạng xã hội khơng? * Nếu câu trả lời Khơng, Anh/Chị vui lịng bỏ qua khảo sát Có Khơng Anh/Chị tham gia nhóm mạng xã hội nào? (có thể chọn nhiều mục) LinkedIn 66 Twitter Facebook YouTube Diễn đàn/Forum/Blog chuyên ngành Pinterest Google Plus Khác:……………… Thời gian tham gia nhóm mạng xã hội < năm - năm > năm II Nội dung Anh/Chị vui lòng đánh giá mức độ đồng ý với phát biểu theo quy ước từ thấp đến cao sau (Khoanh trịn anh chị lựa chọn): Hồn tồn khơng đồng ý; Rất không đồng ý; Không đồng ý; Bình thường; Đồng ý; Rất đồng ý; Hồn tồn đồng ý ST Các tiêu chí đánh giá Mức độ đồng ý T Tơi trì mối quan hệ thân thiết với số thành 26 viên Nhóm ngành nghề/cùng chuyên môn mạng xã hội Tôi dành nhiều thời gian trao đổi với số thành viên 27 Nhóm mạng xã hội 67 Các thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội sử dụng 28 mẫu câu giao tiếp dễ hiểu trình thảo luận Các thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội sử dụng hình 29 thức kể chuyện/tường thuật để truyền tải thông tin Kiến thức chia sẻ thành viên Nhóm 30 mạng xã hội liên quan đến đề tài quan tâm Kiến thức chia sẻ thành viên Nhóm 31 mạng xã hội dễ hiểu Các thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội cư xử với 32 cách phù hợp Các thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội cư xử với 33 chân thành Tơi ln có kinh nghiệm làm việc từ thành 34 viên Nhóm mạng xã hội Tơi thường tìm cách giải vấn đề hỏi 35 thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội 36 Tơi tin mộ tnhân viên làm việc hiệu Tôi cảm thấy hài lịng với chất lượng cơng việc 37 Kiến thức chia sẻ thành viên Nhóm 38 mạng xã hội xác 39 Kiến thức chia sẻ thành viên Nhóm 68 mạng xã hội thường đầy đủ Các thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội ln giữ 40 lời hứa với thành viên khác Các thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội biết cách tham 41 gia vào nói chuyện với thành viên khác Tơi biết hồn cảnh cá nhân số thành viên 42 Nhóm mạng xã hội Tơi thường xun giao tiếp với số thành viên 43 Nhóm mạng xã hội Các thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội khơng lợi dụng 44 Các thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội sử dụng 45 ngôn ngữ thông dụng biệt ngữ Kiến thức chia sẻ thành viên Nhóm 46 mạng xã hội thường đáng tin cậy Kiến thức chia sẻ thành viên Nhóm 47 mạng xã hội mới/cập nhật Các thành viên Nhóm mạng xã hội cố gắng 48 chia sẻ kiến thức chuyên ngành họ với cách dễ hiểu Cấp tin nhân viên làm việc 49 hiệu 50 Đồng nghiệp tin nhân viên làm việc 69 suất III THÔNG TIN CÁ NHÂN: Xin anh/chị vui lòng cung cấp số thông tin chung cá nhân: Giới tính Thời gian làm việc Nam < năm Nữ -3 năm >3-5 năm > năm Nghề nghiệp Nhân viên văn phòng Độ tuổi bạn: Quản lý 40 tuổi 70 Appendix D: Data coding Variable Code Scales I maintain close social relationships with some SIT1 members in the social media professional groups Social I spend a lot of time interacting with some members in SIT2 the social media professional groups Interaction Ties I know some members in the social media professional SIT3 groups on a personal level I have frequent communication with some members in SIT4 social media professional groups Members in the social media professional groups will TR1 always keep the promises they make to one another Members in the social media professional groups are TR2 truthful in dealing with one another Trust Members in the social media professional groups would TR3 knowingly anything to disrupt the conversation Members in the social media professional groups TR4 behave in a consistent manner TR5 Members in the social media professional groups will 71 not take advantage of others even when the opportunity arises The members in the social media professional groups SL1 use common terms or jargons Members in the social media professional groups use Shared SL2 understandable communication pattern during the discussion language Members in the social media professional groups use SL3 understandable narrative forms to post messages or articles The knowledge shared by members in the social media KS1 professional groups is relevant to the topics The knowledge shared by members in the social media KS2 professional groups is easy to understand Knowledge The knowledge shared by members in the social media sharing KS3 professional groups is accurate The knowledge shared by members in the social media KS4 professional groups is complete KS5 The knowledge shared by members in the social media 72 professional groups is reliable The knowledge shared by members in the social media KS6 professional groups is timely I can always acquire working experience or know-how KA1 from other group members in social media professional groups I can always acquire the ways to solve problems from Knowledge KA2 other group members at my request in social media acquisition professional groups Other group members always try to share their expertise KA3 from their education or training with me in a more effective way in social media professional groups JP1 I believe I am an effective employee JP2 I am happy with the quality of my work output JP3 My manager believes I am an efficient worker JP4 My colleagues believe I are a very productive employee Job performance 73 Appendix E: Crobach Alpha at the first running Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Scale Variance Corrected Item- Cronbach's Alpha Item Deleted if Item Deleted Total Correlation if Item Deleted Trust 16.90 7.593 572 464 Trust 17.35 7.665 555 475 Trust 17.66 8.060 599 464 Trust 17.02 8.699 582 490 Trust 17.27 12.771 -.167 823 Item-Total Statistics Knowledge sharing Knowledge sharing Knowledge sharing Knowledge sharing Knowledge sharing Knowledge sharing Scale Mean if Scale Variance if Corrected Item- Cronbach's Alpha Item Deleted Item Deleted Total Correlation if Item Deleted 22.30 14.929 629 778 22.29 15.343 615 782 22.63 13.914 743 752 22.69 14.673 708 763 22.61 14.199 689 764 22.07 17.504 205 874 74 Appendix F: Figure Figure F1: Histogram of knowledge sharing Figure F2: Normal P-P Plot of knowledge sharing Figure F3: Scatter plot of knowledge sharing 75 Figure F4: Histogram of knowledge acquisition Figure F5: P-P Plot of knowledge acquisition Figure F6: P-P Scatter Plot of knowledge acquisition 76 Figure F7: Histogram of Job performance Figure F8: Normal P-P Plot of job performance Figure F9: Scatter plot job performance ... gaining and exchanging knowledge This paper focuses on the facet of gaining and sharing knowledge in social media communities Knowledge plays a very important role in operating and developing... to combine the use of social capital theory to investigate the motivation employees share knowledge in social media professional groups and the impact of knowledge on job performance 1.5 Thesis... Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s social capital theory to examine whether the social capital has any impacts on knowledge sharing and acquisition within social media professional groups, which in turn affect the