Citation: Afandy, D.; Gunawan, A.;
Stoffers, J.; Kornarius,Y.P.; Caroline,
A. Improving Knowledge-Sharing
Intentions: A Study in Indonesian
Service Industries. Sustainability 2022,
14, 8305. https://doi.org/10.3390/
su14148305
Academic Editor: Edmundas
Kazimieras Zavadskas
Received: 5 June 2022
Accepted: 5 July 2022
Published: 7 July 2022
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sustainability
Article
Improving Knowledge-Sharing Intentions: A Study in
Indonesian Service Industries
David Afandy
1,2
, Agus Gunawan
1,2,3,
*, Jol Stoffers
3,4,5
, Yoke Pribadi Kornarius
1
and Angela Caroline
1
1
Department of Business Administration, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung 40141, Indonesia;
d_afandy@yahoo.com (D.A.); yoke.pribadi@unpar.ac.id (Y.P.K.); angela.caroline@unpar.ac.id (A.C.)
2
MBA Department, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung 40141, Indonesia
3
NEIMED, Socio-Economic Knowledge Institute, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands; jol.stoffers@zuyd.nl
4
Faculty of Management, Open Universiteit of the Netherlands, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands
5
Research Centre for Employability, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, 6131 MT Sittard, The Netherlands
* Correspondence: agus_gun@unpar.ac.id
Abstract: Managers of service firms should improve the knowledge-sharing intentions among
employees to obtain knowledge stored in them and use it to provide better services to customers.
Across types of organizations, especially professional bureaucracies and operating adhocracies, one
question is whether service firms can use the same information technology infrastructure strategy
to improve workers’ knowledge-sharing intentions. To address this question, 347 respondents
working in service industries participated in this study, and focus group discussions were conducted
among representatives of those firms to produce better interpretations of statistical results. Findings
suggest a weak but significant relationship between information technology infrastructure and
knowledge-sharing intentions. While entering a new normal period after the COVID-19 pandemic,
effective information technology infrastructures appear to represent a natural and ordinary facility.
Despite operating in disparate organization types, managers in both professional bureaucracies and
operating adhocracies should build trust and relationships with workers to increase knowledge-
sharing intentions.
Keywords: knowledge-sharing intentions; information technology infrastructure; professional bu-
reaucracy; operating adhocracy; service industry
1. Introduction
Managing a service firm requires consideration of several special factors. First is
maintaining service quality across workers. Customers develop disparate impressions
when served by different workers because services are intangible, and in most cases, some
degree of customization is required to meet a customer’s specific needs; service ownership
cannot be transferred to other people since customers experience services directly [1,2].
Second is that managers should understand the workforce’s requirements well to address
future challenges, technology intensity [1], and knowledge productivity [3]. In addition
to these two characteristics, the most crucial factor is organization type. Mintzberg [4]
categorizes five types of organizations—simple structure, machine bureaucracy, profes-
sional bureaucracy, division form, and adhocracy—which are formed based on four aspects
of organizational structure. First is operating core, strategic apex, middle line, technos-
tructure, and support staff; second is method coordination, such as mutual adjustment,
direct supervision, standardization of work processes, outputs, and skills; third is job
specialization, behavior formalization, training and indoctrination, unit grouping, unit size,
action planning, performance control system, liaison devices, and vertical or horizontal
decentralization; and fourth is configuration, such as the age and size of the organization,
and its environment.
Sustainability 2022, 14, 8305. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148305 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability