Motivated to Share? Using the Person–Environment Fit Theory to Explain the Link between Public Service Motivation and Knowledge Sharing

Despite the growing evidence that public service motivation (PSM) is an important source of employee outcomes, there is still a dearth of empirical evidence on whether it stirs one’s willingness to share learned knowledge with other members of an organization. The authors explore the mediating role of workers’ perceived fit in a given setting as a causal mechanism through which PSM promotes knowledge-sharing indirectly. Findings based on the primary data of 1048 occupationally diverse employees working in 33 local governments in South Korea show that PSM has a positive impact on knowledge sharing, person–group (P–G) fit, and person–job (P–J) fit, and P–G fit and P–J fit plays a mediating role in improving knowledge sharing, respectively, while person–supervisor (P–S) fit does not. This study interprets these results as suggesting that P–S it should be considered independently from environmental factors in the public organization, as it is derived from the interrelationship between employees and supervisors that began in the hierarchy of the organization, and thus is difficult to be related to other factors. Based on literature review and empirical analysis, this study presents theoretical and policy implications.