6. Discussion
The test revealed two homogenous
subsets, which suggested that attitude to
The purpose of the study was to test
responses with the influence of a binary
components of the theoretical model
question structure (Subset 1, Table 3)
proposed by Bircham (2003) and to
differed to those with the influence of an
address the question of whether or not
open-ended or directed question structure
question structure is of importance in the
(Subset 2, Table 3). The difference
knowledge sharing process. The results of
between open-ended and directed
the study support the notion that question
questions structures for the factor attitude
structure does matter; questions of a
was small and not significant (p<0.01).
binary structure had a lower attitude
measure than those questions for either
The Likert scale instrument labels ranged
an open-ended or directed structure.
from strongly disagree = 1 through neutral
These findings complement the literature
= 4 to strongly agree = 7 and the
on knowledge sharing by answering the
calculated means for the attitude measure
call for further investigation into
increased when question structure
questioning (Cooper, 2003) as well as
complexity increased (binary to open-
focusing on factors that may influence the
ended and directed). This suggests that
recipient.
the recipients were more favourably
disposed towards the knowledge they
There are some potential limitations to the
received when questions of a complex
study. First, the question designer was not
structure were used (Figure 1). This
the same individual as the recipient of the
finding supports hypotheses H
1a
and H
1c.
responses. If the two were the same
However, there was no significant
individual then potentially the findings of
difference in attitude between questions of
this study may not hold. For instance, if
an open-ended or directed structure, even
the person who designs and asks the
though directed questions had a slightly
question is also the recipient of the
higher attitude measure. Therefore,
responses, then in many circumstances it
hypothesis H
1b
is not supported.
would not be unreasonable to assume that
they already possess substantial
knowledge associated with the domain of
the question. The question response
structure preferred in this circumstance
could be of the closed type, rather than
open-ended or directed. However, in many
organisations, if not the majority, the
person required to make the decision,
based on the knowledge received, is not
Figure 1: Mean Plots from Tukey HSD for
the same individual as the question
Attitude
designer (e.g. a finance director may make
the decision and an auditor may design
received. While it is not possible to
definitively conclude from the results of
the questions).
this study that this increase reflects more
favourable attitude in the recipient towards
Second, while this research has
established that question structure does
the knowledge received, neither can such
a conclusion be confidently dismissed.
influence attitude, there is a potential
The findings of this study strongly indicate
limitation in the attitude measure. The
purpose of Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1975)
that a recipient’s attitude towards
knowledge received varies with the
model was to predict behaviour given
structure of the questions used to elicit
attitude and intentions. While the 5-item
attitude measure has been successfully
knowledge from a source. Therefore,
used in various studies (many external to
understanding the influence of question
structure in knowledge sharing is
the field of knowledge management) future
potentially of major significance to
investigation into a recipient’s satisfaction
business and government.
with the knowledge may result in the
development of a more vigorous measure.
For example, a recent development and
Acknowledgements
validation of a measure for website user
This research was funded in part by The
satisfaction (Muylle, Moenaert, &
Foundation of Research Science and
Despontin, 2004) expanded the definition
Technology, New Zealand.
of satisfaction to include identifying
underlying dimensions of the construct,
References
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Alvai, M., & Leidner, D. (2001). Knowledge
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Conceptual foundations and
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Finally, the constructs attitude and
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