The Moderating effect of social media usage on factors influencing workplace knowledge sharing towards a predictive model

Abstract

Knowledge loss is a challenge that companies in the insurance industry often experience. When employees depart from a company, their experiences, trade secrets, insights, contacts, information, and relationships go with them if the organization does not identify, capture, and share that knowledge within the company (Gehrke & Hasan, 2020; Sanders, 2008). To enhance competitiveness through knowledge sharing and minimize knowledge loss, companies are seeking to implement different knowledge sharing initiatives in their workplaces. This thesis aimed at investigating the moderating effect of social media usage on individual factors, influencing knowledge sharing among insurance companies’ employees in Kenya.

To collect data for this study, the researcher used a survey strategy. A structured questionnaire in an online format, composed of 7 scales adapted from previous studies, was used to collect quantitative data from insurance employees in Kenya. A total of 274 employees completed the survey. The researcher then analyzed the data statistically using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlations, and hierarchical regression. The results indicate that social media usage significantly moderates the relationships between three individual factors (trust, altruism, and self-efficacy) and knowledge sharing. The resultant model is significant (F [4, 254] = 187.022, p < .001). This model explains 75.0% of the variance in knowledge sharing. Further, findings conclude that knowledge sharing and social media usage for knowledge sharing are not optimized among insurance employees in Kenya. Therefore, insurance companies should promote a culture of knowledge sharing supported by trust, altruism, self-efficacy, and technology usage. These findings will benefit insurance companies’ managers, employees, policy makers, and scholars towards promoting workplaces that encourage knowledge sharing.