Motivation factors that make knowledge workers share their tacit knowledge in universities: an empirical research

On the basis of reviewing on the existing literatures about knowledge sharing, this paper states that the tacit knowledge sharing among knowledge workers plays an important role in improving universities' competences. Through a KT model, the characteristics of different types of knowledge workers in universities are analyzed. And basing on an empirical research, motivation factors that make knowledge workers share their tacit knowledge in universities are obtained and it is also found that the importance of these motivators is dissimilar for different types of knowledge workers. Then a motivation model is presented suggesting more concrete and efficient motivation mechanisms for the tacit knowledge sharing in universities.