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Objective: This study proposes a model explaining how social capital helps ease excessively required mental effort.Background: Although organizational researchers have studied both social capital and cognitive load, no prior research has critically examined the role of social capital in improving individuals' mental load and effort and consequently enhancing job learning effectiveness.Method: This study surveys participants made up of professionals in Taiwan's information technology industry. It measures the constructs with the use of 5-point Likert-type scale items modified from existing literature. The survey data were analyzed with the use of structural equation modeling.Results: Job learning effectiveness is negatively influenced by role ambiguity and role conflict. Time pressure has a positive influence on role ambiguity and role conflict. Although the relationship between task complexity and role ambiguity is insignificant, task complexity has a positive influence on role conflict. Because the relationship between network ties and role conflict is insignificant, trust has a negative influence on role conflict. Last, shared vision has a negative influence on role ambiguity.Conclusion: This study provides an example of how social capital can be applied as a useful remedy to ease the negative impact of perceived cognitive load on job learning effectiveness.Application: The negative relationship between shared vision and role ambiguity suggests that a shared vision helps in disseminating organizationally common goals and directions among employees to alleviate individuals' mental efforts in dealing with the ambiguity of their job roles. A firm's management team should take actions to decrease role conflict by strengthening trust among employees.

This study proposes a model by postulating antecedents and mediators related to interemployee linkages as the key drivers of task effectiveness, in which task effectiveness is affected indirectly by expressiveness, outcome, and task interdependence through the mediation of knowledge sharing and interemployee helping. This study conducts empirical testing of the proposed model by investigating online knowledge workers from business organizations in Taiwan and confirms the applicability of interemployee linkages in understanding task effectiveness. This study contributes to the literature related to job effectiveness by validating idiosyncratic drivers of interemployee helping and by performing an operationalization of social interdependence. Lastly, managerial implications and limitations of the research are provided.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review two work groups' (local vs foreign) perceptions, attitudes and behavior and propose a moderated mediation model to examine perceived HR practices' impact on identification with the company and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).Design/methodology/approachThis paper selects 320 local and foreign production operators at high-tech firms in Taiwan. The hypotheses are tested using SEM-AMOS, and the mediation effects are analyzed by Sobel test with bootstrapping.FindingsResults show that: first, the relationship influence between identification with the company and OCB is stronger for foreign workers than for local workers; and, second, the moderated mediation of work status exists in perceived practice of rewards for the whole worker model.Research limitations/implicationsTo concentrate on research objective, the authors only consider the same characteristics in local and foreign workers' job environment, neglecting differences in employment conditions, living environment and cultural background.Practical implicationsTwo major implications are that: first, different perceptions on HR practices are based on employees' work status; and, second, in addition to adopting appreciative HR practices for the target group, firms should help employees develop a stronger identification with the company in order to encourage OCB.Originality/valueThis paper studies employees' perception on HR practices, compares a three-variable model between local and foreign workers, and proposes a moderated mediation model to handle HR practices' effects on identification with the company and OCB.

This study examines the role of within-team competition (i.e. team hypercompetition and team development competition) in a team process. We developed and tested a model that associates team collectivism as the antecedent of within-team competition, and knowledge sharing and team flexibility as the outcomes. The model was empirically tested with data from 141 knowledge-intensive teams. The empirical findings showed that team collectivism had a positive relationship with team development competition and a negative relationship with team hypercompetition. Regarding the outcomes, team development competition and team hypercompetition had an indirect relationship with knowledge sharing and team flexibility through team empowerment. We offer a number of original contributions to the team effectiveness literature, especially by showing that team hypercompetition and team development competition have different impacts on team knowledge sharing and team flexibility.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of knowledge sharing from the perspectives of broaden-and-build theory and expectancy theory. Its research purpose is to understand how knowledge sharing is driven by such predictors as optimism, pessimism, and positive affect through their complex interactions with collectivism or power distance. In the proposed model of this study, knowledge sharing relates to optimism and pessimism via the partial mediation of positive affect. At the same time, the influence of optimism, pessimism, and positive affect on knowledge sharing are moderated by the national culture of collectivism and power distance, respectively.


Design/methodology/approach
This study's hypotheses were empirically tested using data from high-tech firms across Taiwan and Malaysia. Of the 550 questionnaires provided to the research participants, 397 usable questionnaires were collected (total response rate of 72.18 percent), with 237 usable questionnaires from Taiwanese employees and 160 usable questionnaires from Malaysian employees. The data from Taiwan and Malaysia were pooled and analyzed using: confirmatory factor analysis for verifying data validity, independent sample t-tests for verifying the consistency with previous literature regarding cultural differences, and hierarchical regression analysis for testing relational and moderating effects.


Findings
This study demonstrates the integrated application of the broaden-and-build theory and expectancy theory for understanding optimism, pessimism, and positive affect in the development of knowledge sharing. The test results confirm that positive affect partially mediates the relationship between optimism and knowledge sharing and fully mediates the relationship between pessimism and knowledge sharing. Moreover, collectivism and power distance have significant moderating effects on most of the model paths between knowledge sharing and its predictors except for the relationship between pessimism and knowledge sharing.


Originality/value
This study extends the expectancy theory to justify how optimistic and pessimistic expectations are stable traits that dominate the way employees share their knowledge sharing. This study shows how collectivism and power distance of Hofstede's cultural framework can be blended with the broaden-and-build theory and expectancy theory to jointly explain knowledge sharing. Besides, this study provides additional support to the adaptation theory of well-being that suggests psychosocial interventions, which manage to enhance well-being by leveraging positive affect, hold the promise of reducing stressful symptoms and boosting psychological resources among employees.