The Impacts of the Cognitive Nature of the Task and Psychological Empowerment on an Individual's Knowledge Creation, Sharing, and Application

Organizational level studies of knowledge management have been enhanced by the development of the measurement instruments for individual knowledge management practices. However, our understanding on what factors and how these factors drive an individual's knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application activities is still limited. This paper explores the influence of the cognitive nature of the task and the psychological empowerment of the individuals on the extent to which an individual engages in the creation, sharing, and application of knowledge. A model of how the nature of the task and the empowerment of knowledge workers are related to an individual's knowledge management practices is proposed and tested with structural equation modeling approach. The results suggest that the cognitive nature of the task drives knowledge creation. While the psychological empowerment of the knowledge worker enhances knowledge sharing and application, empowerment is not linked to knowledge creation.