Knowledge sharing practice in selected Malaysian academic libraries

Abstract

Managing and standardising the environmental unit for human connection, collaboration, coordination, and loyalty is necessary for knowledge sharing practice. This research examines three factors: trust & relation, teamwork skills and corporate culture that influence library staff knowledge-sharing practice. It investigates the level of knowledge sharing practice among library staff, concentrating on five academic libraries in the Klang Valley of Malaysia. The research utilised the amended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as the underlying research framework. First, the study examined attitude, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norm towards knowledge sharing intention. Second, it examined the external factors mentioned formerly with the threefold towards knowledge sharing intention. Third, it also discussed the moderating factor (library staff ignorance) between the attitude and knowledge sharing intentions. This research is limited to its external validity because it only surveyed library staff perceptions in the five selected academic libraries. The study used the quantitative research approach to identify and test variables and examine the intentions and perceptions of library staff encountered with significant modifications in knowledge sharing practice from the academic library ecosystem. Thus, a quantitative survey was designed using a google Internet-based questionnaire and carried out to the participants, and then later this was followed by a documentation analysis. The researcher collected data from 474 library staff, including the supporting team, (sample size, 214). As was expected, all the surveyed respondents were librarian employees on the ratified matters regarding academic libraries. The sampling consists of a nonprobability sample using convenience sampling. The data were analysed using the SPSS version 23 and Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The analysis procedure includes descriptive statistics, central tendency, distribution, frequencies, assessment of measurement and structural model to evaluate its reliability and validity, assess the structural model to determine the causal relationships and test the research hypotheses. Based on the analysis, the results found that three variables (teamwork skills, corporate culture, and library staff ignorance) through perceived behavioural control, subjective norm, and intention significantly influence knowledge-sharing practice. The overall score of 0.910 (higher than the approved criterion) indicates that the needed factors were internally consistent. The model as a whole was statistically significant to predict knowledge sharing practice: F(8, 205) = 45.208, p ˂ 0.000b as shown by the ANOVA Table. The overall findings demonstrated that academic library staff have a high level of knowledge sharing practise, with internal consistency values ranging from 0.702 to 0.916, Cronbach's Alpha ranging from 0.868 to 0.922, Average Variance Extracted (AVE) ranging from 0.606 to 0.747, Composite Reliability (CR) ranging from 0.854 to 0.922, and Rho A coefficient of reliability ranging from 0.838 to 0.996. The results also show that intention fully mediated the direct relationship between attitude, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norm towards knowledge sharing practice. Furthermore, the moderating role of library staff ignorance supported the path coefficient (t-value) of its interaction with intention, which is significant. The results reveal that at lower-level library staff ignorance, the attitude has a weak impact on the determination to share knowledge. Thus, the main contribution to this study is how respondents share knowledge, as seen through their level of perception and their knowledge sharing practices.