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Knowledge Sharing and Creativity: Individual and Organizational Perspective

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Book cover Contemporary Challenges in Cooperation and Coopetition in the Age of Industry 4.0

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics ((SPBE))

Abstract

The flow of knowledge between employees contributes to the knowledge development which in turn influences individual and organizational creativity. However, knowledge sharing by employees is not a simplistic and homogeneous behaviour. Basing on the literature review in the area of intraorganizational knowledge sharing and creativity, the author aims to explain the relation between giving knowledge and individual (giver) creativity and organizational creativity. The knowledge sharing is analysed from the knowledge giver perspective. Author has distinguished two forms of knowledge giving—proactive and reactive—that are situation depended. This conceptual article indicates that proactive and reactive knowledge sharing relates differently with creativity and that sharing knowledge with others is not always positive to the giver’s creativity, while it is influential for organizational creativity. The theoretical deliberations are summarized in nine propositions. They indicate that managers need to take into account the likelihood of individual creativity loss as a cost of reactive knowledge sharing; otherwise, the quality of sharing could be harmed by knowledge manipulation by the sharer, with a negative influence on organizational creativity.

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Acknowledgements

The article is prepared as a part of the research project granted by the National Scientific Centre, Poland (grant no. UMO 2018/29/B/HS4/01085).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Aleksandra Rudawska

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  1. Aleksandra Rudawska
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Correspondence to Aleksandra Rudawska .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Lodz University of Technology, Łódź, Poland

    Agnieszka Zakrzewska-Bielawska

  2. Department of Management, Lodz University of Technology, Łódź, Poland

    Iwona Staniec

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Rudawska, A. (2020). Knowledge Sharing and Creativity: Individual and Organizational Perspective. In: Zakrzewska-Bielawska, A., Staniec, I. (eds) Contemporary Challenges in Cooperation and Coopetition in the Age of Industry 4.0. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30549-9_5

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