¹Northwestern Memorial Hospital, 1315 Greenwood Avenue, Deerfield, IL, U.S.A.

Correspondence: Jialin Yi, 1315 Greenwood Avenue, Deerfield, IL 60015, U.S.A. Tel: +1 224 515 6096

Received 2 May 2006; Accepted 15 October 2008.

Abstract

The concept of knowledge sharing is getting more and more attention in the research and practice of knowledge management. It is necessary to develop relevant performance assessment and reward systems to encourage people's knowledge sharing behaviors (KSBs). Till now, little effort has been put into developing a valid and reliable measure of KSB. The primary purpose of this study is to develop a new measure of KSB with desirable psychometric properties – a well-developed KSB scale with a sufficient level of reliability and validity. This main objective was achieved by using the following procedures: (1) specify domain of construct, (2) generate scale items, (3) purify scale, and (4) validate scale. The new KSB scale developed in this study is a 4-dimensional, 28-item, 5-response choice frequency scale. The scale includes written contributions, organizational communications, personal interactions, and communities of practices dimensions. The results provided evidence of the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the KSB scale.