The effect of social contexts and formation of individualism–collectivism orientation on knowledge sharing intention: the case of workers in Korea

Purpose This study aims to pay attention to the role of social contexts, including perceived relationship conflict and coworker support in creating an individualistic or collectivistic disposition, and how organization members differently behave to share knowledge depending on their personal dispositions. Design/methodology/approach The research model was set and PLS-SEM was used to validate the proposed eight hypotheses. A total of 462 survey data were collected from workers in Korea to test the model. Findings The findings revealed that both perceived relationship conflict and coworker support positively influence knowledge sharing intention by facilitating formation of individualism and collectivism orientation. In other words, individualism and collectivism are motivated by different factors, which applies equally to knowledge sharing. Originality/value This study makes an initial step to explain the relationship between knowledge sharing behavior and individualism–collectivism orientation by using social contexts as a potential antecedent. Especially, along with perceived co-worker support, perceived relationship conflict was also found to have a positive impact on knowledge sharing intention through individualism orientation, which is a significant contribution to the field of knowledge management.