Abstract

Teams are widely used in organized workplaces. This study developed and tested a model to understand how to promote knowledge creation and learning behavior by individuals in a team setting. Team members in the same context may perceive differences in contextual factors. Is it possible to promote greater knowledge creation and learning by individuals when they perceive various team contextual factors? In this study, individual motivation and team contextual factors were considered simultaneously to explore the direct and interaction effects of these factors. We employed a motivation–opportunity–ability (MOA) framework, which included individual motivation, psychological safety, and collective efficacy. The proposed model was an empirical test using survey data from 207 R&D team members and 42 team leaders. The team members answered the individual motivation, psychological safety, and collective efficacy questions; their team leaders answered the knowledge creation and learning behavior questions. Results revealed that extrinsic motivation, collective efficacy, and psychological safety directly affected an individual’s knowledge creation and learning behavior. Notably, intrinsic motivation had no direct effect; however, it affected an individual’s knowledge creation and learning behavior when collective efficacy was strong or psychological safety was weak. These findings yielded important implications for research and practice.

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