Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Business

Program Name/Specialization

Accounting

Faculty/School

Lazaridis School of Business and Economics

First Advisor

Leslie Berger

Advisor Role

Supervisor

Abstract

Knowledge sharing between managers and employees is critical for employee development and organizational performance. However, managers differ in whether they share knowledge, and in the type of knowledge shared. While solution-oriented knowledge offers immediate answers to improve short-term performance, process-oriented knowledge promotes long-term learning and employee development. The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate factors that influence managers’ knowledge-sharing decisions.

I conduct two studies to investigate my predictions. In Study 1, I examine how the timing of employee help-seeking requests, the source of performance targets and employee historical performance influence the type and quality of managers’ knowledge-sharing responses. Drawing on managers’ perceptions of employee commitment, I find that managers are most willing to provide high-quality process-oriented knowledge when employees self-set their performance targets and seek help earlier in the performance period, relative to when employees seek help later, regardless of target origin. In Study 2, I build on these findings by examining how employee historical performance and target difficulty interact with target origin to influence the quantity of knowledge managers share. In a laboratory experiment, I find that the effect of target origin on managers’ process-oriented knowledge sharing depends on employees’ prior performance. Managers share more process-oriented knowledge with historically lower-performing employees when targets are manager-set, whereas they share more such knowledge with historically higher-performing employees when targets are employee-set. Finally, I find that target difficulty did not influence managers’ knowledge sharing decisions.

My findings contribute to the knowledge-sharing literature by demonstrating that managers’ decisions about knowledge sharing depend on features of the management control system design. Specifically, the design of performance targets shapes not only the quantity of knowledge managers share, but also the type of knowledge they provide to employees. More broadly, my dissertation highlights when managers invest in employee learning and development through process-oriented knowledge sharing and the important role of informal manager–employee interactions as a mechanism for facilitating organizational learning and employee development.

Convocation Year

2026

Convocation Season

Spring

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