Factors affecting the knowledge sharing attitude of hotel service personnel

International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 468–476

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman

Factors affecting the knowledge sharing attitude of hotel service personnel Wen-Jung Chen, Han-Yin Cheng ∗ Hospitality Management Department, De Lin Institute of Technology, Taiwan

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Keywords: Internal marketing Organizational culture Perceived behavioral control Knowledge sharing attitude

a b s t r a c t The accumulation and sharing of knowledge is an important managerial approach to attracting customers and increasing customer satisfaction. However, knowledge sharing is not an automatic behavior. The primary purpose of this study is to understand the organizational and personal factors motivating employees to share knowledge. Personnel in international tourist hotels in Taipei who provide front-line services for travelers were surveyed. This study shows that internal marketing and organizational culture influence knowledge-sharing attitudes and perceived behavioral control. In addition, perceived behavioral control influences the relations among internal marketing, organizational culture, and knowledge-sharing attitudes. This research suggests that to develop knowledge-sharing attitudes among personnel that benefit customer service, it is important for managers to model supportive attitudes, give actual support in forms such as bonuses and resources, and develop a culture that encourages personnel to attempt innovation. Crown Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Knowledge sharing confers a competitive advantage that enhances an organization’s ability to meet customers’ diverse and rapidly changing demands (Kim and Lee, 2006). However, employees often refuse to share knowledge because they worry that doing so may reduce their opportunities for promotion or because doing so requires uncompensated time and energy (Bock et al., 2005). The primary goals of this study are to understand the organizational and personal factors motivating employees to share knowledge and to provide suggestions for management to increase knowledge sharing. Lings (1999) put forth an internal customer-oriented view of internal marketing that considers the employees within an organization as internal customers and internal suppliers. Through continual interaction with external customers, employees facilitate organizational learning and knowledge sharing, thus ensuring and enhancing internal and external quality. Dibb and Simkin (2000) asserted that internal marketing involves establishing cooperation between internal suppliers and internal customers. An internal market can improve the cross-functional exchange of information and integrate personal knowledge from different sources to create value for external customers (Hwang and Chi, 2005). Internal marketing is a relationship- and knowledge-management strategy that this study deems to be conducive to customer service. This

∗ Corresponding author at: Hospitality Management Department, De Lin Institute of Technology, No. 1, Lane 380, Qingyun Rd., Tucheng City, Taipei County 236, Taiwan. Tel.: +886 2 2273 3567x369; fax: +886 2 2273 4426. E-mail address: [email protected] (H.-Y. Cheng).

study uses a definition of internal marketing in which employees are regarded as internal customers and internal suppliers. The study combines marketing, application of theory, and the technology of human resource management to encourage employees to develop positive attitudes toward knowledge sharing. Researchers have found that organizational culture affects employees’ knowledge-sharing attitudes and behaviors. Kim and Lee (2006) reviewed past studies that proposed three elements of organizational culture to be related to knowledge sharing: an organization’s prospects and goals, trust, and social networks. They found that social networks strongly affect knowledge sharing. Karlsen and Gottschalk (2004) proposed that cultural features the discourage knowledge sharing include a lack of incentives, insufficient time to learn and improve, a lack of openness, relying on technical expertise to select personnel, and supervisor resistance. However, their work was not systematic. The literature review and survey performed in the current study aim to suggest ways for organizations to develop a culture that is conducive to knowledge sharing. Taiwan has recently started issuing national travel cards and opened the country to Mainland tourists for sightseeing for weekends. The increasingly competitive hotel industry is concerned about how to improve its products and services and how to train its service personnel to provide excellent customer service. Hotel managers believe that the accumulation and sharing of knowledge among employees is an important management approach that allows their hotel to attract and retain tourists. If hotel employees share knowledge with their colleagues, they are likely to provide better service to hotel guests. This study uses international tourist hotels in Taipei as the setting for exploring the impacts of internal marketing and organizational culture on the knowledge-sharing

0278-4319/$ – see front matter. Crown Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.07.005

W.-J. Chen, H.-Y. Cheng / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 468–476

attitudes of hotel-industry service personnel. This investigation attempts to identify factors that affect knowledge sharing and to provide suggestions for management to increase their behavior among employees.

2. Literature review and hypotheses 2.1. Knowledge-sharing attitude Yang (2008) surveyed personnel who worked in international tourist hotels and found that individual attitudes toward knowledge sharing influence organizational knowledge-sharing behavior. Hu et al. (2009) argued that hotel managers need to develop service personnel’s knowledge-sharing attitudes and behaviors to achieve high service innovation performance. Bock et al. (2005), Kolekofski, Jr. and Heminger (2003) and Hendriks (1999) argue that knowledge-sharing attitudes should be divided into phases, namely, self-worth, symbol of power, and expected return. “Self-worth” refers to the extent to which members of the organization think knowledge sharing will be beneficial; “symbol of power” refers to the extent to which knowledge is regarded as a symbol of personal power; and “expected return” refers to the extent to which a person believes that sharing knowledge will lead to external and internal rewards (Bock et al., 2005; Hendriks, 1999), including financial remuneration, potential promotion opportunities, a sense of achievement, or recognition by others. 2.2. Internal marketing and knowledge-sharing attitudes Lings (1999) divided internal marketing into two complementary concepts: the internal customer orientation and the internal market orientation. The internal customer orientation refers to viewing employees as internal customers and internal suppliers. When employees interact with external customers and understand their needs, the message is conveyed to the internal supplier. After an assessment by the internal supplier, further knowledge and services are provided to the internal customers, and, through a continual process of interaction to promote organizational learning and knowledge sharing, the quality of service is enhanced. Ballantyne (2003) argued that internal marketing is a relationshipand knowledge-management strategy and that, through crossfunctional integration, coordination and cooperation within the organization, organizational learning and knowledge renewal goals can be achieved. It can be seen that internal marketing activities are related to knowledge sharing. This study uses Lings (1999) proposed view of the internal customer orientation and “human resource orientation” (Hales and Josie, 1994) to define internal marketing as follows: to regard employees as internal customers and internal suppliers and that, through relevant human resources and marketing theories and techniques, to promote internal learning among the employees and increase service quality. Knowledge sharing is a kind of personal capability that can improve organizational performance (Kim and Lee, 2006). Ahmed et al. (2003) found a positive relation between internal marketing and organizational and personal capabilities. Therefore, this study is mainly based on the dimensions of internal marketing proposed by Ahmed et al. (2003) and refers to Conduit and Mavondo (2001) and Foreman and Money (1995), who spoke of five dimensions related to knowledge sharing, namely, internal communication, leadership, management support, inter-departmental interaction, and training and openness, and verified the relations between all dimensions and knowledge-sharing attitudes.

469

Internal communication refers to organizations’ encouragement of interaction between employees and of the development, through a variety of internal and external channels, of employees’ awareness of the importance of knowledge exchange and sharing. Ballantyne (2003) argued that employees need to communicate with one another to acquire the information and knowledge necessary for the implementation of the organization’s mandate. Gronroos (2000) thought that the organization must advocate for its point of view, strategies and methods through leaflets, internal bulletins, magazines, and other communication channels so that employees will understand and accept them. Leadership refers to a supervisor’s ability to direct employees and provide them with a trustworthy point of view. Foreman and Money (1995) argued that when the organization lays out a clear goal and its employees trust the leadership of their supervisors, the employees will behave favorably toward the organization because they understand its expectations. Srivastava et al. (2006) surveyed management teams at 102 hotel properties in the United States and found that leadership was related to knowledge sharing, which, in turn, was positively related to hotel performance. Therefore, this study suggests that executive leadership will have positive effects on employees’ knowledge-sharing attitudes. Management support means that managers encourage employees to share knowledge and support activities that can promote employees’ knowledge sharing. Yang (2007) surveyed employees working in international tourist hotels and found that facilitation by managers is positively correlated with employees’ knowledge sharing. In other words, when the manager respects and responds to employees’ views and allows them to participate in decisionmaking, employees will be able to recognize and accept the concept of sharing their knowledge. Inter-departmental interaction refers to the organization’s and the managers’ encouraging interaction and mutual assistance among employees of different departments, namely, the extent of formal and informal contacts among departments. When the employees’ interaction is not confined to their own department, employees, because of their understanding of the operations of other departments, will be willing to provide valuable information and knowledge to each other and to help to meet each other’s needs (Conduit and Mavondo, 2001; Robert, 2010). Training and openness refer to the organization’s enabling employees to upgrade their skills and knowledge through training and development and to cultivate employees’ knowledge-sharing attitudes and capabilities. Scholars believe that the organization, by implementing education and training, may inculcate in employees the value of knowledge sharing and develop the employees’ communication skills that are necessary for sharing knowledge (Kang et al., 2008). In addition, during education and training, an open organizational climate is established through interactive discussions, contributing to employees’ sharing of knowledge (Gronroos, 2000). This study suggests that internal marketing is achieved through human resource management measures to cultivate and change employees’ attitudes, and when the organization is intent on enhancing the quality and performance of employees, it will naturally provide resources and an environment that are conducive to knowledge sharing or that reduce the factors impeding knowledge sharing. In a study of the factors affecting hotel employees’ attitudes toward knowledge sharing, it was found that internal marketing measures helped hotel employees to understand the importance of knowledge sharing, establish their knowledge-sharing attitude and enhance their job performance and work capability, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of the hotel (Hwang and Chi, 2005). Therefore, the present study predicts that the internal marketing of the hotel industry will affect employees’ knowledge-sharing attitudes and puts forward H1 as follows: internal marketing will positively influence personnel knowledge-sharing attitudes.

470

W.-J. Chen, H.-Y. Cheng / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 468–476

2.3. Organizational culture and knowledge-sharing attitudes Malaviya and Wadhwa (2005) argued that organizational culture is the spiritual model shared by a group of organization members that is related to beliefs, including norms, practices, management processes, assumptions, customs, and organizational memory. It is believed that members’ conduct is influenced by organizational culture. Because organizational culture is a rather vague and broad concept, scholars have suggested that it is better to study organizational culture in a special context and relative to a specific research question. In this study, organizational culture refers to values and beliefs jointly held by a group of members of the organization that will affect their knowledge-sharing behavior. This study refers to studies related to the knowledge sharing by Bock et al. (2005), Kim and Lee (2006), and Taylor and Wright (2004) and divides organizational culture into five dimensions: trial and innovation, cooperation and trust, fairness, social network, and open-mind and participation. “Trial and innovation” means that employees perceive that the organization and supervisors are there to encourage them to improve, be creative, to try new things and new ways of working and make mistakes (Bock et al., 2005; Taylor and Wright, 2004). Kim and Lee (2006) found that when employees perceived the organization and supervisors as encouraging trials and innovation, they were more willing to share ideas and knowledge. “Cooperation and trust” means that the organization’s members trust each other’s ability to complete their work and believe that the other group members will help them to sort out their problems (Kim and Lee, 2006). Yang (2007) surveyed employees working in international tourist hotels and found a strong positive relation between a collaborative culture and the effectiveness of knowledge sharing. Gupta (2008) surveyed 718 respondents in different sectors, including R&D, manufacturing, hospitality, and IT solutions, and found that individuals within an organization who are willing to share their knowledge with others have more mutual trust. “Fairness” means that employees are fair and impartial regarding organizational matters (Bock et al., 2005). When employees perceive an atmosphere of fairness, a sense of trust will arise and make them more willing to share knowledge. “Social network” means that the employees communication and interaction with one another in both formal and informal ways (Huang et al., 2009; Kim and Lee, 2006). Huang et al. (2009) found that formal and informal relationships and contact between employees are important influences on perspectives and knowledge sharing. In the context of formal relationships and interactions, work teams and training courses help employees to share knowledge, but some studies have found that more knowledge sharing takes place in informal interactions, such as interest groups. Yang (2009) argued that various channels of interaction that connect individuals to accomplish organizational goals, such as social networks (e.g., networking, social events) and informal and formal meetings, can accelerate knowledge sharing and encourage employees to have positive knowledge-sharing attitudes. “Openmind and participation” means that employees acknowledge that organization members may freely exchange views and managers seek and pay attention to the views of their employees (Taylor and Wright, 2004). Knowledge sharing requires one party who is willing and able to share knowledge, and another who wishes to receive it (Hendriks, 1999). In other words, when no one wishes to exchange knowledge, an individual’s willingness to share is low; therefore, an atmosphere of open communication will encourage discussion and consultation among employees, thus helping to make knowledge sharing possible. Yang and Wan (2004) examined the extent to which hotels implement knowledge management and found that cultures that

support acquiring, sharing, and storing knowledge can be beneficial. Yang (2010) argued that managers need to nurture employees’ communication skills and develop a positive workplace climate to encourage positive knowledge-sharing attitudes and activities. Furthermore, he found that employees have to receive support from their managers to develop favorable knowledge-sharing attitudes. Therefore, this study proposes H2 as follows: As personnel become more open-minded and the participatory, cooperation, trust, fairness, social networking, and trial and innovation aspects of organizational culture are encouraged knowledge-sharing attitudes will improve.

2.4. The moderating role of perceived behavioral control “Perceived behavioral control” refers to a person’s awareness of the need for resources and opportunities to engage in a specific behavior and to awareness of his or her ability to engage in the behavior. It comprises two parts: facilitating environment and selfefficacy (Ajzen, 1991; Taylor and Todd, 1995). The former refers to the individual’s ability to obtain the resources needed to show a particular behavior, such as time, money or other resources (Fitch and Ravin, 2005); the latter reflects the extent to which the individual is believed to have the ability to demonstrate the behavior (Conner and Armitage, 1998). In this study, “perceived behavioral control” refers to employees’ recognition that the resources needed for sharing knowledge can be easily accessed and to their belief that they are able to engage in it. Scholars believe that the individual controls the implementation of specific behaviors with a positive influence on the behavior and related attitudes (Fitch and Ravin, 2005; Kidwell and Jewell, 2003). Ajzen (1991) argued that the more an individual perceives that the resources, opportunities and capabilities necessary for the implementation of a certain behavior are available to him or her, the more control over the implementation of that behavior the individual will believe him- or herself to have, and thus his or her attitude toward the behavior will become more favorable. Cho et al. (2007) surveyed 207 hotel employees and found that self-efficacy significantly influences the intention to share knowledge. Internal marketing, through human resources and marketing management measures, cultivates and changes employees’ attitudes. When an organization aims to facilitate internal learning and enhance the quality of its employees’ knowledge, it will surely provide resources or an environment conducive to increasing employees’ knowledge sharing, such as management support and training. When employees perceive the organization and management to be providing the relevant resources or enhancing employees’ capacity to guide and encourage their colleagues to share knowledge, employees’ knowledge-sharing attitudes will improve. Therefore, this study proposes H3 as follows: perceived behavioral control will have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between internal marketing and knowledge-sharing attitudes. The study suggests that an organizational culture conducive to knowledge sharing will help to shape the atmosphere to facilitate employees’ sharing of knowledge (Yang, 2010), allow employees to perceive the importance of having the ability to share knowledge, and further help to improve employees’ knowledge-sharing capabilities. Therefore, when employees perceive that the organization will provide resources conducive to knowledge sharing or to increasing their own ability to share knowledge, the impact of the organizational culture on knowledge-sharing attitudes will increase. Therefore, this study proposes H4 as follows: perceived behavioral control will have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the organizational culture and knowledgesharing attitudes.

W.-J. Chen, H.-Y. Cheng / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 468–476

Internal Marketing

471

H1

Internal Communication Leadership Management Support Inter-departmental Interaction Training

and

Knowledge-Sharing Attitude

Openness

Self-worth Symbol of Power Expected Return H3 H4

Organizational Culture

Perceived Behavior Control

Trial and Innovation

Facilitating Environment

Cooperation and Trust

Self-efficacy

Fairness Social Network Open-mind

and

Participation H2

Fig. 1. Conceptual framework.

Based on the literature review, this study has developed a conceptual framework that includes the following main research variables: internal marketing, organizational culture, perceived behavioral control, and knowledge-sharing attitude (see Fig. 1). 3. Research design 3.1. Sample According to statistics from the Tourism Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Republic of China, there are 59 international tourist hotels in Taiwan, with 23 of these located in Taipei City. Therefore, this research took international tourist hotels in Taipei as potential participants. After contacting these hotels, 12 hotels agreed to participate in this research. A total of 480 copies of the study questionnaire were distributed to hotel personnel who provided front-line services for travelers (including front desk, housekeeping, concierge, and restaurant employees) in June 2010. In August 2010, 358 responses were recovered (74.58% recovery rate). After review, 12 incomplete responses were excluded (including 6 copies omitting more than 5 questions concerning the research variables or more than 2 questions concerning personal information). Therefore, 346 valid questionnaires were recovered, for a recovery rate of valid questionnaires of 72.08%. On average, 28 copies were recovered from each hotel. The proportions of male and female respondents were respectively 41.5% and 58.5%. Respondents were mainly aged between 20 and 30 (74.6%), had a university education (59.4%), and were single (62.4%). Most interviewees worked in housekeeping and counter service at the front desk (60.3%), and most were non-management personnel (83.8%). Most interviewed personnel had worked at their respective hotels for less than 1 year (33.8%) or for 5–10 years (29.4%). Most of them had a monthly income of NT$20,000–40,000 (69.2%).

3.2. Measurement This study used a questionnaire investigation method and used current scales to verify the content validity of the questionnaire. An internal marketing scale was developed in accordance with Ahmed et al. (2003), Conduit and Mavondo (2001), and Foreman and Money (1995); an organizational culture scale according to Bock et al. (2005), Kim and Lee (2006), and Taylor and Wright (2004); a perceived behavioral control scale according to Johnny and Bolloju (2005) and Taylor and Todd (1995); and a knowledgesharing attitude scale according to Bock et al. (2005), Hendriks (1999), and Kolekofski Jr. and Heminger (2003). The initial questionnaires were submitted to five scholars and hotel managers and 50 personnel of two tourist hotels in Taipei to check the appropriateness of the questionnaire content. Analysis of the results of this pretest showed that the cumulative percentages of variance of all scales explained by the research variables are 59.21–80.76%, and the scales have acceptable internal consistency. The final questionnaire used in this research was divided into three parts. Part 1 assessed the respondent’s perception of the internal marketing and organizational culture of the hotel, including 20 questions on internal marketing and 19 questions on organizational culture. Part 2 assessed the respondent’s perception of knowledge sharing, including 6 questions on perceived behavioral control and 8 questions on knowledge-sharing attitude. Respondents indicated their degree of agreement on 5-point Likert scales. Part 3 collected demographic information about the respondents.

3.3. Data analysis As shown in Table 1, the average values of all research constructs are between 2.39 and 3.91, with standard deviations between .48 and .98. “Leadership” has the highest average score and “training and openness” the lowest average score in the internal market-

472

W.-J. Chen, H.-Y. Cheng / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 468–476

Table 1 Description and confirmatory factorial analysis on the study variables. Construct & Factor

Items

Internal marketing Internal communication Leadership Management support Inter-departmental interaction Training and openness Organizational culture Trial and Innovation Cooperation and trust Fairness Social network Open-mind and participation Perceived behavioral control Facilitating environment Self-efficacy Knowledge-sharing attitude Self-worth Symbol of power Expected return

20 items totally 4 5 4 3 4 19 items totally 6 6 3 2 2 6 items totally 3 3 8 items totally 4 2 2

Mean

S.D.

Factor loading

SMC

CR

AVE

3.41 3.91 3.46 3.64 3.38

.86 .66 .79 .87 .87

.86–.91 .66–.89 .78–.90 .85–.93 .82–.90

.68–.84 .51–.85 .58–.90 .52–.90 .51–.82

.92 .85 .84 .88 .88

.69 (.83) .70 (.84) .73 (.85) .69 (.83) .65 (.81)

3.41 3.55 3.03 2.99 3.09

.76 .75 .98 .84 .73

.82–.91 .80–.91 .89–.93 .91 .90

.61–.82 .54–.85 .66–.85 – –

.92 .92 .89 – –

.67 (.82) .65 (.81) .74 (.86) – –

3.29 3.83

.77 .48

.64–.88 .67–.77

.51–.79 .51–.58

.92 .85

.63 (.79) .55 (.74)

3.68 3.23 2.39

.73 .86 .98

.70–.92 .89 .98

.59–.88 – –

.88 – –

.74 (.86) – –

Note: () means squared root of AVE.

ing section. “Cooperation and trust” has the highest average score and “social network” the lowest average score among the organizational culture items. “Self-efficacy” has the highest average score among the perceived behavioral control items. “Self-worth” has the highest average score and “expected return” the lowest average score in the knowledge-sharing attitude section. After recovering the questionnaires in accordance with Gerbing and Anderson (1988), reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to check the reliability and validity of the test questions. The SMC of the questions concerning the research variables is more than .51 and the CR is more than .84, indicating good internal consistency. We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement scales. In accordance with prior research, if 2 /d.f. < 5, RMSEA < .08, SRMR < .1, GFI > .9, AGFI > .8, and CFI > .9, the model is considered to be a good fit (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). All research variables were found to conform to these standards, and the factor loadings of all questions were as expected, demonstrating the fitness of the overall model. Hair et al. (1998) suggested that factor loading > .5, SMC > .5, CR > .7, and AVE > .5 indicated that the constructs have convergent validity. If the square root value extracted from the average variability of latent variables is bigger than the correlation coefficient under a different construct, then the correlation between the latent constructs is weaker than the correlation within the latent constructs. This rule is helpful for evaluating the convergent and discriminant validity of the research variable constructs. The results indicate that the factor loadings of the questions concerning the research variables are all greater than .64, SMC > .51, CR > .84, and AVE > .55, so this model has good convergent validity. In addition, the AVE square root values of all research variables are larger than the correlation coefficients between the constructs, so the model has good discriminant validity. 4. Results 4.1. Correlation analysis Correlation analysis was used to test the linear relationships between the research variables and between the constructs. Table 2 shows that internal marketing was positively related to organizational culture, knowledge-sharing attitude, and perceived behavioral control. All constructs were positively related, except the relationships between “inter-departmental interaction”

in internal marketing and “cooperation and trust” in organizational culture, respectively, and “self-worth” in knowledge-sharing attitude as well as the relationship between “training and openness” in internal marketing and “symbol of power” in knowledge-sharing attitude. The relation between “training and openness” in internal marketing and “open-mind and participation” in organizational culture, the relations between “management support” and “training and openness” in internal marketing and “self-worth” in knowledge-sharing attitude, and the relation between “internal communication” in internal marketing and “facilitating environment” in perceived behavioral control are the most significant. Organizational culture is strongly positively related to both knowledge-sharing attitude and perceived behavioral control. All constructs are positively related, except for the relation between “social network” in organizational culture and “symbol of power” in knowledge-sharing attitude, the relations between both “fairness” and “open-mind and participation” in organizational culture and “self-efficacy” in perceived behavioral control, and especially the relations between “trial and innovation” in organizational culture and “self-worth” in knowledge-sharing attitude and between “social network” in organizational culture and “facilitating environment” in perceived behavioral control. Knowledge-sharing attitude and perceived behavioral control are positively related. Except for the relations between “expected return” in knowledge-sharing attitude and “self-efficacy” in perceived behavioral control, all other constructs are obviously related, especially “expected return” in knowledge-sharing attitude and “facilitating environment” in perceived behavioral control. 4.2. Hierarchical regression analysis Through analysis of variance, this research found that Age (F = 36.34, p = .00), Education Background (F = 19.33, p = .00), Experience (F = 11.39, p = .00), and Average Monthly Income (F = 18.86, p = .00) significantly influence knowledge-sharing attitude, with 2 coefficients larger than .06. Therefore, these variables were controlled for in hierarchical regression analysis to determine the power of internal marketing, organizational culture, and perceived behavioral control and their interactions to explain knowledgesharing attitude. Table 3 shows that demographic variables have obvious power to explain knowledge-sharing attitude. Among them, the explanatory power of Average Monthly Income is greatest. The coefficient of Age is negative, indicating that older interviewees have sig-

W.-J. Chen, H.-Y. Cheng / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 468–476

473

Table 2 Correlation analysis of the research variables.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

1.00 .87** .74** .78** .49** .82** .64** .51** .40** .51** .55** .63** .69** .70** .32** .49** .36** .22** .44**

1.00 .60** .63** .32** .66** .60** .47** .39** .50** .59** .49** .71** .68** .39** .46** .33** .16** .45**

1.00 .44** .21** .44** .30** .17** .21** .30** .39** .26** .48** .52** .18** .21** .15** .09* .21**

1.00 .43** .69** .64** .59** .36** .48** .54** .69** .55** .55** .27** .55** .48** .26** .34**

1.00 .34** .22** .23** .08 .17** .13** .29** .27** .25** .16** .23** .07 .25** .26**

1.00 .62** .54** .38** .45** .41** .72** .48** .54** .13** .50** .48** .08 .36**

1.00 .89** .79** .73** .56** .64** .48** .47** .24** .58** .44** .23** .48**

1.00 .58** .47** .51** .54** .43** .33** .36** .52** .51** .17** .30**

1.00 .49** .16** .32** .29** .31** .11* .36** .24** .17** .35**

1.00 .40** .48** .32** .38** .06 .40** .16** .32** .50**

1.00 .43** .51** .53** .22** .38** .34** .01 .39**

1.00 .36** .43** .06 .45** .39** .11* .38**

1.00 .88** .67** .59** .49** .36** .33**

1.00 .25** .55** .40** .34** .43**

1.00 .34** .38** .21** .01

1.00 .83** .56** .64**

1.00 .15** .22**

1.00 .33**

1.00

Notes: 1. Internal marketing, 2. Internal communication, 3. Leadership, 4. Management support, 5. Inter-departmental interaction, 6. Training and openness, 7. Organizational culture, 8. Trial and innovation, 9. Cooperation and trust, 10. Fairness, 11. Social network, 12. Open-mind and participation, 13. Perceived behavioral control, 14. Facilitating environment, 15. Self-efficiency, 16. Knowledge-sharing attitude, 17. Self-worth, 18. Symbol of power, 19. Expected return. * Means p < .05. ** Means p < .01.

nificantly less positive knowledge-sharing attitudes. In addition, after incorporating internal marketing and perceived behavioral control into the model, their power to explain knowledgesharing attitude increased significantly to 52.6%. This change indicates that under the influence of the Age, Education Background, Experience, Average and Monthly Income demographic variables, internal marketing and perceived behavioral control exert a significant influence on knowledge-sharing attitudes. “Management support” in internal marketing was the construct with the best explanatory power. Finally, considering the interactive effect of internal marketing and perceived behavioral control and knowledge-sharing attitude increased their explanatory power significantly to 61.1%. Perceived behavioral control was found to alter the effects of “internal communication” and “management

support” in internal marketing on knowledge-sharing attitude, indicating that knowledge-sharing ability and resource-perceiving ability can enhance the organization’s influence on employees’ knowledge-sharing attitudes through internal communication and knowledge-sharing support provided by management. Table 4 shows that, after incorporating organizational culture and perceived behavioral control into the model, their power to explain knowledge-sharing attitude increased significantly to 71.0%. Thus, under the influence of Age, Education Background, Experience, and Average Monthly Income, the organizational culture and perceived behavioral control significantly affect knowledge-sharing attitude. “Trial and innovation” in organizational culture was found to have the best explanatory power. Finally, when analyzing the interactive effect of organizational

Table 3 Hierarchical regression analysis on the influence of internal marketing, perceived behavioral control on knowledge sharing attitude. Variables (dependent variable: knowledge-sharing attitude)

Area 1

Area 2

Demographic variables

Independent variable Age Education Background Experience Average Monthly Income Internal communication Leadership Management support Inter-departmental interaction Training and openness Perceived behavioral control Internal communication * perceived behavioral control Leadership * perceived behavioral control Management support * perceived behavioral control Inter-departmental interaction * perceived behavioral control Training and openness * perceived behavioral control Model brief R square F p R square F p

Independent variables

Beta

t

p

−.24 .12 .07 .30

−4.80 2.48 1.53 5.50

.00 .01 .13 .00

.137 18.65 .00 .137 18.65 .00

.526

Area 3

Beta −.14 .07 .13 .17 .11 .11 .27 .00 .11 .28

Moderating effects

t

p

−2.99 1.75 3.26 3.53 1.90 2.38 4.64 .09 1.96 5.40

.00 .08 .00 .00 .06 .02 .00 .93 .05 .00

Beta −.09 .01 .09 .11 2.12 .31 1.15 .08 .32 .10 3.18 .33 2.17 .12 .78

.611 86.69 .00 .389 84.96 .00

66.33 .00 .085 20.39 .00

t

p

−2.08 .14 2.47 2.22 6.84 1.63 3.28 .38 .87 .46 6.48 .90 3.97 .41 1.36

.04 .89 .01 .03 .00 .10 .00 .71 .38 .65 .00 .37 .00 .68 .17

474

W.-J. Chen, H.-Y. Cheng / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 468–476

Table 4 Hierarchical regression analysis on the influence of organizational culture, perceived behavioral control on knowledge sharing attitude. Variables (dependent variable: knowledge-sharing attitude)

Independent variable Age Education Background Experience Average Monthly Income Trial and innovation Cooperation and trust Fairness Social network Open-mind and participation Perceived behavioral control Trial and innovation * perceived behavioral control Cooperation and trust * perceived behavioral control Fairness * perceived behavioral control Social network * perceived behavioral control Open-mind and participation * perceived behavioral control Model brief R square F p R square F p

Area 1

Area 2

Area 3

Demographic variables

Independent variables

Moderating effects

Beta

t

p

−.24 .12 .07 .30

−4.80 2.48 1.53 5.50

.00 .01 .13 .00

.137 18.65 .00 .137 18.65 .00

culture and perceived behavioral control on knowledge-sharing attitude, their explanatory power increased significantly to 86.7%. Perceived behavioral control was found to disrupt the effects of “trial and innovation”, “cooperation and trust”, and “open-mind and participation” in organizational culture on knowledge-sharing attitude. This result indicates that the abilities to share knowledge and perceive resources can enhance the organization’s influence on employees’ knowledge-sharing attitudes through an innovative, cooperative, trustworthy, open and participative corporate culture.

Beta −.14 .07 .13 .17 .57 .08 .20 .01 .09 .36

.710 45.19 .00 .573 84.96 .00

t

p

−2.99 1.75 3.26 3.53 11.04 1.96 3.89 .17 1.91 6.86

.00 .08 .00 .00 .00 .05 .00 .87 .06 .00

Beta −.09 .01 .09 .11 1.09 .63 .10 .60 1.31 .54 .82 1.17 .57 .89 2.00

t

p

−2.08 .14 2.47 2.22 4.16 3.89 .33 3.44 4.24 2.83 1.96 3.82 1.23 1.65 4.14

.04 .89 .01 .03 .00 .00 .74 .00 .00 .01 .05 .00 .22 .13 .00

.867 38.56 .00 .157 16.41 .00

willing to say what they think and share their knowledge, especially their bad experiences. This research suggests that to develop personnel knowledge-sharing attitudes that will benefit customer service, it is important for the management level to model supporting attitudes and give actual support, such as bonuses, resources, and open communication channels, rather than only speaking positive about sharing knowledge (Yang, 2010). Management must also develop a culture to encourage personnel to attempt innovation. 6. Conclusions

5. Discussion This study has shown that internal marketing and organizational culture influence employee knowledge-sharing attitudes and perceived behavioral control. Perceived behavioral control influences the relations among internal marketing, organizational culture, and knowledge-sharing attitudes. Internal marketing and organizational culture are important for knowledge sharing, and knowledge-sharing ability can be improved by providing helpful resources that enhance their positive influences. The most important factor that drives knowledge sharing is the employees’ attitude toward it (Hislop, 2003). Yang (2008) argued that personnel usually ignore the importance of sharing their working knowledge. Hendriks (1999) proposed that some individuals are not willing to share their knowledge, especially their bad experiences, failures or mistakes, because they feel that doing so could have negative consequences, such as layoffs. The investigation found that the “management support” aspect of internal marketing and “trial and innovation” in organizational culture have the largest influences on personnel knowledge-sharing attitude. The ways in which managers stimulate and facilitate knowledge sharing among their employees are important (Yang, 2010). When personnel perceive that management encourages knowledge sharing or undertakes activities to promote it, personnel will demonstrate positive attitudes and behavior toward knowledge sharing because they can feel more free and open in discussing job- and workplacerelated matters. When personnel perceive that the organization and its management are encouraging subordinates to improve and innovate by permitting them to make mistakes, they are more

The results of this study support unique ideas that are very different from the typical concepts of internal marketing. Internal marketing views employees as internal customers and emphasizes the need to sell the organization to the employees. Doing so will develop employees’ customer mindsets so that they pass on higher-quality services (Gronroos, 2000). The majority of studies emphasize the conceptual development of internal marketing and the relations of internal marketing with job satisfaction, customer orientation, and service quality (Ahmed et al., 2003). Based on Ballantyne (2003), this study suggests that internal marketing is a type of relationship- and knowledge-management strategy. To achieve the goals of organizational learning and keeping their knowledge current, management must ensure the integration, coordination, and cooperation of internal organization functions. This study introduces a new perspective by using the internal customer orientation and “human resources orientation” of Lings (1999) to define internal marketing as treating employees as internal customers and internal suppliers. The definition encourages employees to learn and suggests that service quality can be increased through human resources and by using theories and techniques drawn from marketing. The internal marketing scale developed in the present study based on this definition was found to have good reliability. Thus, the definition of internal marketing proposed in this study is reasonable and can be used in future studies as well. The results of this study make a number of practical contributions. We found that management support has the greatest explanatory power among the internal marketing constructs for

W.-J. Chen, H.-Y. Cheng / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 468–476

knowledge sharing. This finding suggests that hotel management should communicate to employees that knowledge sharing is valued and supported by providing bonuses or resources to help hotel workers to establish positive knowledge-sharing attitudes. Yang (2009) argued that the nature of the hotel business requires that the majority of employees, including top management, frequently share working knowledge, such as product, service, and customer knowledge. This argument suggests that top management can build on employees’ awareness of the importance of individual learning and knowledge sharing. This research found that “trial and innovation” and “fairness” are the two constructs that best explain organizational culture. An innovation culture is directly correlated with knowledge sharing, largely because knowledge is best managed and updated in such an environment (Magnini, 2008). When hotel managers encourage personnel to try innovative ideas and to deal with organizational affairs fairly, personnel will trust management and develop positive knowledge-sharing attitudes. This research found that self-worth is the construct that most strongly influences knowledge-sharing attitude, meaning that employees’ knowledge-sharing attitudes will improve when they realize that knowledge sharing contributes to the hotel’s successful operation. Hotel management can use employee education and training to establish the concept that personnel knowledge sharing creates value for the hotel by encouraging positive knowledge-sharing attitudes among hotel personnel. The results of this study yield a number of suggestions for future research. The study focused on service workers at international tourist hotels in Taipei City, but improving the organization’s business performance and efficiency to create value for the organization requires focusing on the communication of knowledge between the service personnel who have contact with customers and other department personnel. Many enterprises engage in transenterprise, cross-sectional and even cross-cultures cooperation to improve competitiveness. For example, many hotels, travel agencies, airlines, and local governments across many countries have supported and cooperated with each other to develop tourist and passenger information products and marketing plans that will attract customers to all of their businesses. Employees’ trust in one another plays an important role in their knowledge sharing. Chathoth et al. (2011) surveyed hotel personnel in the U.S. and Indian and found a significant difference between the employees’ perceptions of the trust construct in the two cultures. Followup research could expand on this finding and investigate how trust impacts hotel employees’ attitudes toward knowledge sharing across different cultural settings. The approach used in the current investigation is limited if the interviewees cannot or will not answer questions or if it is not possible to observe further phenomena. Follow-up research should use behavioral observation, interviews, and qualitative research designs to identify factors that may influence personnel behavior. Researchers have long believed that attitudes predict behavior, but many other factors that can change rapidly also influence specific-behaviors. Follow-up studies could directly assess individuals’ actual knowledge-sharing behavior or apply other objective measurements to better explain organizational performance. References Ahmed, P.K., Raffia, M., Saad, N.M., 2003. Internal marketing and the mediating role of organizational competencies. European Journal of Marketing 37 (9), 1221–1241. Ajzen, I., 1991. The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50 (2), 179–211. Bagozzi, R.P., Yi, Y., 1988. On the evaluation of structural equation models. Academy of Marketing Science Journal 16 (1), 74–94. Ballantyne, D., 2003. A relationship-mediated theory of internal marketing. European Journal of Marketing 37 (9), 1242–1260. Bock, G.W., Zmud, R.W., Kim, Y.G., Lee, J.N., 2005. Behavior intention formation in knowledge sharing: examining the roles of extrinsic motivators,

475

social–psychological forces, and organizational climate. MIS Quarterly 29 (1), 87–111. Chathoth, P.K., Mak, B., Sim, J., Jauhari, V., Manaktola, K., 2011. Assessing dimension of organizational trust across cultures: a comparative analysis of U.S. and Indian full service hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management 30 (2), 233–242. Cho, N., Li, G., Su, C.-J., 2007. An empirical study on the effect of individual factors on knowledge sharing by knowledge type. Journal of Global Business and Technology 3 (2), 1–16. Conduit, J., Mavondo, F.T., 2001. How critical is internal customer orientation to market orientation. Journal of Business Research 54 (1), 11–24. Conner, M., Armitage, C.J., 1998. Extending the theory of planned theory: a review for future research. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 28 (21), 1429–1464. Dibb, S., Simkin, L., 2000. Pre-empting implementation barriers: foundations, processes, and actions-the need for internal relationships. Journal of Marketing Management 16 (3), 483–503. Fitch, J.L, Ravin, E.C., 2005. Willpower and perceived behavioral control: influences on the intention–behavior relationship and postbehavior attributions. Social Behavior and Personality 33 (2), 105–124. Foreman, S., Money, A., 1995. Internal marketing: concepts, measurement, and application. Journal of Marketing Management 11 (8), 755–768. Gerbing, D.W, Anderson, J.C., 1988. An updated paradigm for scale development incorporating unidimentionality and its assessment. Journal of Marketing Research 25 (2), 186–192. Gronroos, C., 2000. Service Management and Marketing – a Customer Relationship Management Approach, 2nd ed. Wiley and Sons, New York. Gupta, K.S., 2008. A comparative analysis of knowledge sharing climate. Knowledge and Process Management 15 (3), 186–195. Hair Jr., J.F., Anderson, R.E, Tatham, R.L., Black, W.C., 1998. Multivariate Data Analysis, 5th ed. Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Hales, C., Josie, M.-B., 1994. ‘Internal marketing’ and human resource management in hotel consortia. International Journal of Hospitality Management 13 (4), 313–326. Hendriks, P., 1999. Why share knowledge? The influence of ICT on the motivation of knowledge sharing. Knowledge and Process Management 6 (2), 91–100. Hislop, D., 2003. Linking human resource management and knowledge management via commitment: a review and research agenda. Employee Relations 25 (2), 182–202. Hu, M.-L.M., Horng, J.-S., Sun, Y.-H.C., 2009. Hospitality teams: knowledge sharing and service innovation performance. Tourism Management 30 (1), 41–50. Huang, Y., Hsu, M.K., Basu, C., Huang, F., 2009. Toward developing a social network site-based model for knowledge sharing in the travel industry. Issues in Innovation 3 (1), 57–73. Hwang, I.-S., Chi, D.-J., 2005. Relationships among internal marketing, employee job satisfaction, and international hotel performance: an empirical study. International Journal of Management 22 (2), 285–293. Johnny, C.F. So, Bolloju, N., 2005. Explaining the intensions to share and reuse knowledge in the context of IT service operations. Journal of Knowledge Management 9 (6), 30–41. Kang, Y.-J., Kim, S.-E., Chang, G.-W., 2008. The impact of knowledge sharing on work performance: an empirical analysis of the public employees’ perceptions in South Korea. International Journal of Public Administration 31 (14), 1548–1568. Karlsen, J.T., Gottschalk, P., 2004. Factors affecting knowledge transfer in IT projects. Engineering Management Journal 16 (1), 3–10. Kidwell, B., Jewell, R.D., 2003. An examination of perceived behavioral control: internal and external influences on intention. Psychology & Marketing 20 (7), 625–642. Kim, S., Lee, H., 2006. The impact of organizational context and information technology on employee knowledge-sharing capabilities. Public Administration Review 66 (3), 370–384. Kolekofski Jr., K.E., Heminger, A.R., 2003. Beliefs and attitudes affecting intentions to share information in an organizational setting. Information & Management 40 (4), 521–532. Lings, I.N., 1999. Balancing internal and external market orientations. Journal of Marketing Management 15 (4), 239–263. Magnini, V.P., 2008. Practicing effective knowledge sharing in international hotel joint ventures. International Journal of Hospitality Management 27 (2), 249–258. Malaviya, P., Wadhwa, S., 2005. Innovation management in organizational context: an empirical study. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management 6 (2), 1–14. Robert, K., 2010. Expanding the role of succession planning. T + D 64 (4), 66– 69. Srivastava, A., Bartol, K.M., Locke, E.A., 2006. Empowering leadership in management teams: effects on knowledge sharing, efficacy, and performance. Academy of Management Journal 49 (6), 1239–1251. Taylor, S., Todd, P.A., 1995. Understanding information technology usage: a test of competing models. Information Systems Research 6 (2), 144–176. Taylor, W.A., Wright, G.H., 2004. Organizational readiness for successful knowledge sharing: challenges for public sector managers. Information Resources Management Journal 17 (2), 22–37. Yang, J.-T., 2007. Knowledge sharing: investigating appropriate leadership roles and collaborative culture. Tourism Management 28 (2), 530–543. Yang, J.-T., 2008. Individual attitudes and organisational knowledge sharing. Tourism Management 29 (2), 345–353.

476

W.-J. Chen, H.-Y. Cheng / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 468–476

Yang, J.-T., 2009. Individual attitudes to learning and sharing individual and organizational knowledge in the hospitality industry. The Services Industries Journal 29 (12), 1723–1743. Yang, J.-T., 2010. Antecedents and consequences of knowledge sharing in international tourist hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management 29, 42– 52. Yang, J.-T., Wan, C.-S., 2004. Advancing organizational effectiveness and knowledge management implementation. Tourism Management 25 (5), 593– 601.

Wen-Jung Chen is an assistant professor of Hospitality Management Department, De Lin Institute of Technology, Taiwan, ROC. Her research interests focus on innovation and organizational management. Her research articles are accepted for publication in Technovation (SSCI), International Journal of Hospitality Management (SSCI), and International Journal of Management. Han-Yin Cheng is an assistant professor of Hospitality Management Department, De Lin Institute of Technology, Taiwan, ROC. Her research interests focus on organizational behavior and hospitality education.