Knowledge Sharing: The Spillover Effects of Process versus Outcome Accountability

• In Event: Process Accountability and Task Feedback

Abstract

Whereas prior literature has examined how process and outcome accountability affect task performance, this paper experimentally investigates the spillover effects of accountability systems on knowledge-sharing behavior and how such effects differ between employees with high versus low task output. Because outcome accountability draws attention to task output, employees who produce higher output may be more confident in their performance and, therefore, are more willing to share task-specific knowledge. In contrast, because process accountability focuses attention on exploring task strategies, employees who engage more in strategy exploration may be more confident in their performance and more willing to share task-specific knowledge, despite that strategy exploration may negatively affect current output. As predicted, experimental results show that employees with higher output are more willing to share their knowledge under outcome accountability but are less willing to share knowledge under process accountability. Mediation analysis confirms that participants' confidence in performance underlies these results. The influences of knowledge sharing on the productivity of coworkers who receive the shared knowledge are also examined.

Author

• Suyun (Sue) Wu, Georgia Institute of Technology