The Effect of Motivation-Reward Fit on Commitment and Knowledge Sharing Activities in Communities of Practice

ABSTRACT As the business competition between firms is getting intense, one of the sources of competitive advantage is effectively and efficiently to create, share, and apply information/knowledge among employees. Most of the firms which conduct knowledge management are operating a Community of Practice(CoP) in order to create, share and utilize this kind of information/knowledge resource. Recently, the CoP is getting out of its informal and spontaneous manner and is beginning to be led by the top management, receiving official support, in order to achieve the organization’s strategic goals. However, the corporation’s strategic operation of the CoP is not only against its original characteristics but also hampers the spontaneity of its participants. Every participant has different motivation to participate and different preference for reward type. This study, with the survey of 114 respondents, found that intrinsic motivation as well as extrinsic motivation significantly affect the motivation-reward fitness. Also, the motivation-reward fit was found to influence CoP commitment which ultimately leads to knowledge sharing activity in the CoP context. This research will help knowledge management companies to figure out how the two things of participants’ motivation and their reward types can fit together, and how such fitness ultimately affects the participants’ commitment and their knowledge sharing activities.Keywords:Community of Practice, CoP, Motivation, Reward Type, Commitment, Knowledge Sharing