Knowledge Sharing: The Spillover Effects of Process versus Outcome Accountability

Abstract

Whereas prior literature has examined how process and outcome accountability affect task performance, in this paper, I experimentally investigate the spillover effects of these accountability requirements on employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior. Because outcome accountability draws attention to task output, employees who produce higher output may be more confident in their performance and, therefore, are more willing to share task-specific knowledge. In contrast, process accountability focuses attention on exploring new task strategies, which may negatively affect short-term output. As a result, employees who engage more in exploration may produce lower output, yet these employees may be more confident in their performance and more willing to share knowledge. As predicted, experimental results show that employees with higher output are more willing to share their knowledge under outcome accountability but are less willing to share knowledge under process accountability. Mediation analysis confirms that employees’ confidence in performance underlies these results. The influences of knowledge sharing on the productivity of coworkers who receive the shared knowledge are also examined.