The effects of job design on employees' knowledge contribution to electronic repositories

Motivating employees to contribute knowledge has been a daunting challenge in knowledge management. This study examines how job design influences employees' knowledge contribution to electronic repositories. Based on Warr's Vitamin Model, we posit that the job autonomy, skill variety, task feedback, task identity, and task significance aspects of job design influence employees' knowledge contribution to electronic repositories through shaping their affective commitment. Results from a survey of 163 professionals indicate that while job autonomy and task significance have positive linear effects, skill variety and task identity have curvilinear effects such that increasing their levels initially improves employees' affective commitment but at very high levels they have negative impacts. This study contributes to theoretical development by identifying the differential effects of various aspects of job design. The findings suggest that managers should be mindful of the double-edged quality of some job characteristics in promoting employees' knowledge contribution to electronic repositories.