The impact of organizational justice and trust on knowledge sharing behaviour

Abstract

The spread of knowledge sharing provides advantages to organizations in developing new solutions to problems along with a broader informational infrastructure. For this reason, it is important to know the factors affecting the knowledge sharing behaviour of individuals. The study examined the impact of employees’ perceptions of organizational justice and trust on knowledge sharing behaviour. The theories of organizational justice, organizational trust and knowledge sharing behavior constitute the methodological framework of the research. Within the scope of the study, data were collected from 421 participants (68 managers and 353 employees) working in public and private sectors in Bartin province (Turkey), using survey method. Within the scope of the study, organizational justice is divided into four sub-dimensions (procedural, distributive, interpersonal, and informational), and the construct of trust includes two sub-dimensions – trust in the manager and in the organization as a whole. As a result of the study, while no significant relationship was found between procedural justice, distributive justice and knowledge sharing, it was found between interpersonal justice, informational justice and knowledge sharing. In addition, a positive and significant relationship was found between trust in the manager, trust in the organization and knowledge sharing behaviour. According to the findings, it is seen that organizational trust has an important role in the exhibition of knowledge sharing behaviour; as the level of trust in organizations increases, knowledge sharing behaviour is positively affected. At the same time, informational and interpersonal justice dimensions affect knowledge sharing behaviour more than distributive and procedural justice. It is emerging that organizations should give more importance to justice’s informational and interpersonal dimensions.