Social Categorization, the Frequency of Instructional Messages and Auditors’ Knowledge Sharing Behavior

• In Event: External Auditor Judgment and Decision Making

Abstract

Prior literature has documented the importance of knowledge sharing to accounting and auditing firms (Vera-Munoz, Ho and Chow 2006; Carson 2009; Reichelt and Wang 2010), however, researchers have made little progress in understanding knowledge sharing behavior in an accounting setting. Vera-Munoz et al. (2006) suggest that formal interactions among auditors can affect auditors’ knowledge sharing behavior. This study aims to understand how formal communication among auditors affects knowledge sharing behavior in knowledge management systems. Specifically, this study investigates the impact of the frequency of instructional messages and message sources on knowledge sharing behavior in an auditing setting. Social categorization theory and message frequency studies in psychology were used to develop the hypotheses of this study. An experiment was conducted and the participants were 103 accounting majors. These participants are used as proxies for staff auditors. The experiment employs a 2×2 between-subjects design. The first independent variable is the frequency of instructional (knowledge sharing) messages and is manipulated at two levels: high frequency or low frequency. The second independent variable is message sources. Participants received instructional messages either from an out-group manager or an in-group manager.
The results of this study indicate that an in-group manager is more effective in motivating knowledge sharing behavior. When motivating auditors’ knowledge sharing behavior, an out-group manager should avoid sending a high frequency of knowledge sharing messages to auditors. This study provides guidelines for altering communication styles in order to encourage knowledge sharing. The findings of this study also suggest that more communication messages are not always better. Thus, these findings help organizations understand the reasons why employees are reluctant to share their knowledge.

Author

• Xu Cheng, University of South Florida