Encouraging Knowledge Sharing among Employees: How Reward Matters

In practice, rewards are often used as a tool to encourage knowledge sharing among employees. However, it is still a matter of discussion among researchers whether rewards both extrinsic and intrinsic have a significant effect on knowledge sharing behaviour. This paper contributes to the discussion about the role of reward system for knowledge sharing. Different types of rewards and their effect on the employees’ willingness to share knowledge and their knowledge sharing behaviour are explored based on evidence from the previous research. The main result of this paper is the theoretical framework which will be used for further research in fostering intrinsic reward for knowledge sharing in the organizations.