The influence of team members’ motivation and leaders’ behaviour on scientific knowledge sharing in universities

This article aims to analyse the influence of team members’ motivation and leaders’ behaviour on knowledge sharing among the academics of a research project team. To that end, a study of 678 academic researchers belonging to project teams linked to several Spanish universities was conducted. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyse the data, and the results reveal that leaders with a knowledge-oriented style have a positive influence on the knowledge shared among the members of their research team. Nevertheless, and contrary to expectations, the results also show that academics’ extrinsic motivation has a negative effect on knowledge sharing, while intrinsic motivation has no effect. The findings are similar when considering the scientific field. This article makes an important contribution to the knowledge management literature in the particular context of academic research. It reveals the importance of a knowledge-oriented leadership style as a key determinant of knowledge sharing within research teams.