Knowledge Sharing Behavior in Indonesia: An Application of Planned Behaviour Theory

Abstract

The objective of this research is to empirically study public servant knowledge sharing intention by implementing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The researcher proposes an extended TPB combined with a perceived environmental concern variable as a determinant of behavioral intention. A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed among civil society and the public sector at the district level in the Central Kalimantan Province of Indonesia. Collectively, 126 inquiries were received. A Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis was applied to analyze and test the research model and hypothesis. The results show that all of the components of the TPB significantly influenced perceived SDG realization. The findings also partially show that knowledge sharing intention mediated the effect of attitude, perceived behavioral control, and perceived environmental concern on SDG realization. This study confirms that perspectives that affect knowledge sharing intention among public sectors could be approached based on the offered model. Hence, the local government can implement the suggestion offered in this research. The originality of this paper lies in the fact that this study discloses factors affecting knowledge sharing among public servants.

1. Introduction

The SDGs replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which started a global effort in 2000 to tackle the indignity of poverty. In 2015, the world came together around an ambitious vision for a safer, healthier, and more prosperous world by 2030. That agenda, articulated across 17 SDGs, was designed intentionally to represent a new approach to development. The Agenda is a commitment to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development by 2030 worldwide, ensuring that no one is left behind. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda was a landmark achievement, providing for a shared global vision towards sustainable development for all. The SDGs have a wider schedule than the MDGs - about 17 goals, 169 objectives, and well over 200 indicators. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets demonstrate the scale and ambition of the new universal Agenda. They seek to build on the MDGs and complete what these did not achieve. One way to measure progress is to focus on the “5 Ps” that shape the SDGs: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnerships. The 5 Ps highlight how the SDGs are an intertwined framework instead of a group of siloed goals (Shehu & Shehu, 2018). The target of the worldwide orientation is to create a better place in all countries by encouraging development activities over the next 15 years in fields of critical importance. Several questions have arisen due to the ambitious SDGs. How can governments get organized to reach the ambition embodied in the 17 SDGs? For example, Igbinovia and Osuchukwu (2018) reported that the library personnel in Nigeria significantly contribute to the realization of SDGs in the knowledge-sharing context.

According to Igbinovia and Ikenwe (2015), knowledge sharing is important to ensure the achievement of SDGs, especially in national and subnational governments, public society organizations, the private sector, academia, and among individual citizens. They have information, knowledge, ideas, skills, and experience in policies and program implementation. They also have the skills to prioritize the targets and indicators, identifying and committing adequate financial resources. Tompang and Yunus (2018) stated that one of the factors that may motivate employees to contribute their knowledge is the way team members communicate with each other. This situation is measured knowledge behavior.

Vong et al. (2014) stated that knowledge sharing has been implemented in the public sector through information quality, organizational commitment, and top management. Their study suggested that organizations need to secure top management support and employee commitment to facilitate knowledge sharing and ultimately improve organizational performance. Therefore, through knowledge sharing, all goals, targets, and indicators are assured by suggesting answers to the problems that underlie the SDGs. Igbinovia and Osuchukwu (2018) stated that knowledge sharing intention had a positive and significant influence on SDGs actualization. Their study concluded that for library personnel to contribute greatly to the realization of Sustainable Development Goals, they must ensure effective knowledge sharing behavior on SDGs- related information. Therefore, the management of libraries should set up structures that foster knowledge sharing. Also, library personnel should develop themselves with the required skills and knowledge on SDGs, which will stimulate a high rate of knowledge sharing. One of the success factors to be able to do that is the implementation of knowledge sharing across the organization.

In the sustainability context, previous research has considered that perceived environmental concerns influence behavior intention (Fang et al., 2017: Li et al., 2019; Nadlifatin et al., 2015). Environmental concern is roughly associated with the awareness of environmental impacts that would drive individual perception to behave in pro-environmental action. Environmental concern also can best be understood as an evaluation of individual perception towards the environment (Fransson and Garling, 1999). Therefore, it is important to explore PEC in knowledge behavior sharing. Thus, this research intends to fill the gap in perceived environmental concern in the public sector. We want to show how perceived environmental concern can be integrated into the TPB model. Previous research has shown that individual perceptions of the environment are important to explore in knowledge sharing behavior (Fang et al., 2017; Li et al., 2019; Nadlifatin et al., 2015). These studies also tried to implement knowledge behavior sharing in the public sector, especially in local governments. In general, the previous studies have rarely used the staff in local governments for sampling. Studies by Igbinovia and Osuchukwu (2018), for example, used the personnel of the library in their study. Therefore, the objective of this study is to empirically study public employees’ knowledge-sharing intention by adopting and extending existing well-established theories.

2. Literature Review and Hypotheses

2.1. Knowledge Sharing

Bolisani and Bratianu (2018) explained that there are three kinds of interconnected knowledge, although they have some specific features of their own: a) experiential knowledge; b) skills; and c) knowledge claims. Hasmath and Hsu (2016) stated that the sharing of knowledge as a combination of information, skills, values, and expertise with others, whether with people, friends, family, communities, or within organizations, is an activity called knowledge sharing. In other words, one of the means to solve organizational complications or find new ideas and make policies or procedures is through the sharing of knowledge (Wang & Noe, 2010). Recently, some research has used knowledge sharing as an innovative behavior (Almuhim, 2020; Muafi, 2020; Supriyanto et al., 2020). Although goods and capital are not as important as in the private sector, knowledge is an important element of competition in the public sector (Siami-Namini, 2018).

With such circumstances, how can the public sector achieve the SDGs? Nashash (2013) found that the achievement of the SDGs in Nigeria hinged first on the awareness and knowledge of the SDGs. It was stated that awareness among students of the SDGs is generally low. Additionally, there is a statistically significant difference in the awareness of the SDGs between students pursuing a bachelor’s degree and those pursuing a diploma, where the former is more aware of the SDGs. It was suggested that instructors should give more attention to relevant topics and that raising awareness is a task that is not confined to one stakeholder, the universities in this case, but rather requires that all stakeholders get involved in the process. The ability to provide public goods and policy implementation is essential to meet 17 SDG objectives, 169 targets, and 231 indicators (UNDP, 2015). Cooperation between politicians and the government, strong motivation, and innovation are needed to realize the political vision of the SDGs. Igbinovia and Osuchukwu (2018) noted that the personnel of the library, through their knowledge sharing, have greatly contributed to the realization of the SDGs.

2.2. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) on Knowledge Sharing Behavior (KSB)

The TPB denotes the link between belief and behaviors, which implies that behavior can be planned and is intentional (Wahyuni et al., 2020). TPB is a theory used to predict and understand behaviors. It posits that behaviors are immediately determined by behavioral intentions, which in turn are determined by a combination of three factors: attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. It is presumed that the intention of an individual to take certain behavior would increase if he or she possessed more favorable attitudes and subjective norms, as well as higher perceived behavioral control.

Attitude reflects the evaluation of an individual toward engaging in a specified behavior. If someone already has an affirmative attitude toward a particular behavior, then that person will have confidence in that behavior (Ajzen, 2010). Subjective norms refer to the belief about whether most people approve or disapprove of the behavior. It relates to a person’s beliefs about whether peers and people of importance to the person think he or she should engage in the behavior (Ajzen, 2010). Perceived behavioral control refers to people’s perceptions of their ability to perform a given behavior. It is assumed that perceived behavioral control is determined by the total set of accessible control beliefs, i.e., beliefs about the presence of factors that may facilitate or impede the performance of the behavior (Ajzen, 2011). Abdillah et al. (2018) stated that personal attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control in Indonesian banking can explain the intention to share knowledge.

Attitude Toward Knowledge Sharing Intention

As Azjen (2010) suggested, when implementing the TPB, the behavioral actions must be well-defined to allow valuable generalization. In this study, this is accomplished in the context of the knowledge-sharing behavior (KSB) of public servants in relation to the SDGs.

Because the SDGs are new and a continuation of the MDGs, the SDGs have received little attention from scholars, mainly research initiatives for predicting knowledge sharing behavior for SDG realization. However, Igbinovia and Osuchukwu (2018) illustrated how attitude can affect the sharing of knowledge in the context of library personnel. They concluded that the variable in question contributes significantly to insight on the SDGs. According to Igbinovia and Osuchukwu (2018), citing Azjen (2002), stated that self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments. Self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to exert control over one’s own motivation, behavior, and social environment. Based on prior research, self-efficacy is one of the main determinants in forming an optimistic attitude toward knowledge sharing (Shaari et al., 2014).

According to Sajeva (2014), the disposition of workers to share knowledge will depend on the various types of rewards that will be received. Lee and Ahn (2007) stated that to achieve effective knowledge sharing, it is important to encourage workers to share their knowledge for the best interests of the firm. However, successfully exerting this encouragement is very challenging. Several organizational factors can complement reward systems in increasing the performance of knowledge management and can mitigate the productivity problem. We assume that the success of achieving goals, targets, and programs will depend on attitudes toward various knowledge. Thus:

H1: Attitude toward knowledge sharing positively affects knowledge sharing intention.

Subjective Norms and Knowledge Sharing Intention

Subjective norms refer to the belief that an important person or group of people will approve and support a particular behavior. Subjective norms are determined by the perceived social pressure from others for an individual to behave in a certain manner and their motivation to comply with those people’s views (Azjen, 2001). It is stated that subjective norms have a significant relationship with the intention to share knowledge. Balozi et al. (2018) found that subjective norms have a significant effect on knowledge-sharing behavior. Following Balozi et al. (2018), the presence of an exchange of benefits and norms of mutuality can make this subjective norm affect knowledge sharing behavior. Thus, the hypothesis is:

H2: Subjective norms for knowledge-sharing behavior positively influence the intention to share knowledge.

Perceived Behavioral Control and Knowledge Sharing Intention

Perceived Behavioral Contro (PBC) is defined as the perception of the difficulty of enacting a behavior (Ajzen, 2010). To explain this perception of behavioral control, Ajzen distinguished it from the locus of control or the control center proposed by Rotter (Ajzen, 1991). The center of control is linked to individual beliefs that are relatively stable in all situations. Another concept that is somewhat close to the perception of behavioral control is self-efficacy or self-efficacy as proposed by Bandura (Ajzen, 2005). The belief of individuals that they have the skills to complete the task is called self-efficacy (Pajares, 1996). More recently, Wahyuni et al. (2021) showed that both internal locus of control and external locus of control affect whistleblowing intention.

Individuals who have a perception of high control are motivated and will try to succeed because they believe in the resources and opportunities that exist and that they can overcome these difficulties (Ramdhani, 2016). It is assumed that the connection between the perception of behavioral control and intent to knowledge sharing is strong. Hypothesis 3 is presented below:

H3: Perceived behavioral control toward knowledge sharing positively affects knowledge sharing intention.

Perceived Environmental Concern and Knowledge Sharing Intention

Environmental problems are issues that challenge every state in the world. All the governments worldwide are in an important position to determine the positive or negative future conditions of the environment (Li et al., 2019). Environmental concern has been treated as an evaluation of, or an attitude towards facts, one’s own behavior, or others’ behavior with consequences for the environment (Fransson & Galing, 1999). Several researchers have proven that environmental concerns directly affect individual behavioral intention (Li et al., 2019; Nadlifatin et al., 2015). For this reason, concerning the SDGs, the study aims to verify whether it is possible to state that:

H4: Perceived environmental concern positively affects knowledge sharing intention.

Self-Efficacy and Attitude Toward Knowledge Sharing

Self-efficacy is “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.” Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation (Bandura, 1978). Self-efficacy also determines what goals we choose to pursue, how we go about accomplishing those goals, and how we reflect upon our own performance. Akhter et al. (2012) stated that the ability to complete tasks well is a belief in one’s abilities. It is a form of self-efficacy. To the extent that self-efficacy can be applied to knowledge management to prove the sharing of knowledge. Jolaee et al. (2014) reported that the desire to share knowledge is primarily present when people think that the expertise they have will improve work quality and efficiency for the organization. Similar studies have confirmed the correlation between self-efficacy and attitude toward knowledge sharing (Li, 2013; Sedighi, 2016; Sutanto, 2019). Therefore, the fifth hypothesis is proposed:

H5: Self-efficacy has a positive effect on knowledge-sharing attitudes.

Extrinsic Reward and Attitude

Several theories suggested that individuals are more likely to share knowledge when extrinsic rewards for knowledge sharing are provided (Shoemaker, 2014). An extrinsic reward fulfills employees’ extrinsic factors and thus do not let them start thinking about leaving the company. Previous research testing the relationship between extrinsic rewards and knowledge sharing has reported mixed results. Knowledge sharing is a part of Social Exchange Theory and will only occur when rewards exceed their costs (Mohammed et al., 2011). However, numerous knowledge-sharing studies have focused on extrinsic rewards in the knowledge-sharing process (Chong & Besharati, 2014). They believed that an effective extrinsic reward system can retain the high performers in the organization and that rewards should be related to their productivity. Therefore, the hypothesis is proposed:

H6: Extrinsic rewards have a positive effect on the attitude toward knowledge sharing.

Organizational Climate

According to Balozi et al. (2017), organizational climate encourages and facilitates open communication for knowledge sharing among employees. Organizational climate is a general expression of what the organization is. It is the summary perception that people have about the organization. It conveys the impressions people have of the organisational internal environment within which they work. (Khalil et al., 2014). Besides, organizational climate is a major determinant of the subjective norms (Bock et al., 2005) in which external factors, such as institutional structures, influence the salience of subjective norms. Such a view is supported by prior studies examining behavioral intentions in specific cultures (Bock et al., 2005). This leads to the seventh hypothesis:

H7: Organizational climate has a positive effect on the subjective norms toward knowledge sharing.

Knowledge Sharing Intention Affects the Realization of Perceived SDGs

A central factor in predicting behavior in the TPB is a person’s intention to perform a given behavior (Azjen, 1991). Intentions capture the motivational factors that influence behavior which reflects how hard people are willing to try and how much effort they will exert to perform the behavior (Azjen, 1991). How hard someone tries to carry out behaviors that are already attached to his mind is called intention. The intention is a mental state that represents a commitment to carrying out an action or actions in the future. Our goals, purposes, or aims are our intentions. It’s something we intend to do, whether we accomplish it or not. Several studies have explained that intent to share knowledge positively affects the realization of perceived SDGs (Mahyarni et al., 2012; Igbinovia & Osuchukwu, 2018).

The strong desire of a public servant to strive for knowledge sharing tends to lead to actual behavior. A weak desire for knowledge sharing is likely to result in a public servant not performing perceived SDGs realization. In line with this, an environmental concern directly affects individual behavior intention. Therefore, this study investigates the following hypothesis:

H8: Knowledge sharing intention positively affects perceived SDGs realization.

2.3. Empirical Model

Figure 1 shows the theoretical framework that was established in line with the TPB. Figure 1 is designed to demonstrate the independent variables of attitude (A), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and perceived environmental concern (PEC) in relation to subconstructs as used in this study.

Figure 1: Proposed Research Framework of Knowledge Sharing Intention and SDGs Behavior

3. Research Method

3.1. Data Collection and Measurement

This current research uses a survey method to determine the status of the public sector regarding Knowledge Sharing Behavior (KSB) in relation to the SDGs. Three regencies and one municipality located in the middle of Indonesia, Central Kalimantan Province, were chosen as a sample because the four local governments were compiling at the same time the Local Medium-Term Development Plans Document which is relevant to this study. The document assesses the performance of the SDGs in each local government. A structural questionnaire was used to collect data from the public servants in each local organization. Data collection in Indonesia is a challenge. In general, the researcher faces the reluctance of respondents to answer and complete the survey (Abdillah et al., 2018).

A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed, out of which 126 (84%) were used in this study. This is fulfilled for analysis since the standard acceptable for most research work is 60% (Igbinovia & Osuchukwu, 2018).

The sample demographics are described in Table 1 according to the type of office, gender, age, educational qualifications, designation, and work experience. It shows that 65.07% of the respondents were from the public sector; 78 (61.90%) were males, and 57 (45.23%) were over 40 years old. Besides, the respondents were distributed across positions such as the head of the office (7.93%), head of the department (35.71%), and technical staff (56.34%).

Table 1: Profile of Respondents

The measurement of knowledge sharing behavior (perceived SDG realization) has been modified to suit the present study. In this study, we modified some instruments (Atav et al., 2015; Castaneda et al., 2016; Igbinovia & Osuchukwu, 2018; Punniyamoorthy & Asumptha, 2019; Tirana & Tjakraatmaja, 2019) to measure respondents’ perceptions of knowledge sharing behavior, including practices related to written contributions, organizational communications, personal interactions, and communities of practice. Examples of these items are as follows: “How do you generally share knowledge internally in the organization”; “I express ideas and thoughts in organizational meetings”; and “I discuss with others as to how to help societies living in scarcity.” Items to measure subjective norms are as follows: “Individuals who affect my behavior (my head officer, co-worker, friends, etc.) think that I should share my knowledge.” The alpha coefficient ranges from 0.83 to 0.94. All the items for each variable used in this study were measured on a 5-Point Likert scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree.

The data was analyzed using partial least squares– structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the use of SmartPLS 3.0. PLS-SEM consists of two steps (Hair et al., 2014). Following Abdillah (2018), PLS-SEM analysis first focuses on the reliability and validity of the measures used to represent each construct. Second, after the measures represented each construct, the theoretical model was assessed to explain whether the hypotheses were or were not statistically supported (Abdillah et al., 2018).

4. Research Results

4.1. Measurement Model

The measures were subjected to a thorough measurement analysis using PLS analysis to test validity and reliability (Hair et al., 2014). All assessment at this phase aims to ensure each instrument item utilized to measure constructs, such as attitude toward knowledge sharing, subjective norms about knowledge sharing, perceived controls for knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing intention and perceived SDGs realization (knowledge sharing behavior), has good accuracy and a good consistency level (Abdillah et al., 2018).

Table 2 shows the confirmation scale reliability and validity of the constructs in this study. Table 2 displays that the composite reliability value for all constructs is above 0.7, which shows that the constructs in the estimation model meet the discriminant validity criteria. Discriminant validity is demonstrated by evidence that measures of constructs that theoretically should not be highly related to each other are, in fact, not found to be highly correlated to each other. Table 2 also depicts the value of average variance extracted (AVE) which indicates that the item loaded to respective constructs explain more than 50% of the variance of the construct. AVE is a measure of the amount of variance that is captured by a construct in relation to the amount of variance due to measurement error. AVE is the average amount of variance in indicator variables that a construct is managed to explain. Moreover, Table 2 presents the assessment of construct reliability in which the value fulfills the internal consistency (Balozi et al., 2017; Abdillah et al., 2018).

Table 2: Scale Reliability and Validity of the Constructs

4.2. Structural Model Analysis

After evaluating the measurement model, we tested the structural model. The hypothesized model in Figure 2 was estimated with structural equation modeling (SEM). The maximum likelihood parameter estimates from the hypothesized model are reported in Table 3.

Figure 2: The Estimated SEM Path Model

Table 3: Hypotheses Testing Results

Table 3 shows the hypotheses testing results. Based on the hypotheses test results, it is found that 7 hypotheses are confirmed and 1 hypothesis is rejected. We find a positive relationship between attitude toward knowledge sharing and knowledge sharing intention (β = 0.199; ρ < 0.021); this means that the more positive was the attitude of the public officer toward knowledge sharing intention, the more they perceived SDGs to be realizable at the set targets. Therefore, the alternative hypothesis is accepted that states there is a significant relationship between attitude and knowledge sharing intention, providing support for hypothesis 1. We also find results that support hypothesis 2 (β = 0.200; ρ < 0.026); hypothesis 3 (β = 0.386; ρ < 0.000); hypothesis 4 (β = 0.177; ρ < 0.005); hypothesis 5 (β = 0.331; ρ < 0.000); hypothesis 7 (β = 0.235; ρ < 0.000); and hypothesis 8 (β = 0.3675; ρ < 0.006). In this study, we find that extrinsic reward cannot improve attitude toward knowledge sharing (β = 0.125; ρ < 0.286); hence this result does not support hypothesis 6.

This section reports the results of hypotheses that were tested at a 0.05 level of significance.

5. Discussion

As was predicted, starting from the first hypothesis, the results of the research show that attitude has an influence on knowledge sharing intention. Attitude toward knowledge sharing in this study is conceptualized as the degree of a person’s positive feeling about sharing knowledge. This research was consistent with other studies in the field of knowledge sharing intention (Jolaee et al., 2013; Mahyarni et al., 2012; Massaro et al., 2015; Muafi, 2020; Park et al., 2012). However, Tompang and Yunus (2018) stated that civil servants would face various challenges in sharing knowledge, such as meeting stakeholder desires and public expectations in their daily activities. Thus, the practical implication of this study is that public hopes and aspirations of stakeholders will enhance the positive attitude of civil servants toward sharing knowledge.

The second hypothesis states that subjective norms toward knowledge sharing behavior positively affect knowledge sharing intention. The study presents that there is a relationship between subjective norms and knowledge-sharing intention by an employee in the public sector. Results obtained in this research expand and deepen the findings reported in previous studies (Khalil et al., 2014; Mahyarni et al., 2012). In contrast to the findings of Abdur-Rafiu et al. (2015) and Park et al. (2012), there was no significant positive relationship found between subjective norms and knowledge sharing intention. However, in the setting of this study in Indonesia, subjective norms are influential in shaping the perspective on knowledge sharing.

The third hypothesis claims that perceived behavioral control toward knowledge sharing positively affects knowledge sharing intention. According to the analysis, there is a significant relationship between behavioral control (PBC) and knowledge sharing intention by the employees in the public sector, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Similar to this, Igbinovia and Osuchukwu (2018) asserted that the PBC of library personnel in Nigeria has a predictive relationship (positive and significant correlation) with their intention to share knowledge. This supports Azjen (1991) that the more resources and opportunities individuals believe they possess and the fewer obstacles or impediments they anticipate, the higher should be their perceived control over the behavior. This supports Igbinovia and Osuchukwu (2018) who found in their study a positive relationship between the existence of knowledge sharing of library personnel in Nigeria and perceived SDGs realization.

The fourth hypothesis states that perceived environmental concern positively affects knowledge sharing intention. In this study, environmental concern was added and further explored. Our research is consistent with the results from the former study that the environmental concern variable is relevant in the SDGs context. The above analysis implies that people can view environmental conditions in assessing individual perceptions about the consequences for the environment because knowledge of sustainable development very much emphasizes the state of concern for the environment.

The fifth hypothesis states that self-efficacy has a positive effect on knowledge-sharing attitudes. The study confirmed that perceived self-efficacy had a positive and significant influence on attitude toward intention to share knowledge. Another concept that is somewhat close to the meaning of perception control is self-efficacy as proposed by Bandura (in Ajzen, 2005). In general, self-efficacy is an individual’s belief that he/she will successfully master the skills needed to complete specific tasks (Bandura, 1977; Pajares, 1996). This finding is consistent with the findings from the previous study that there is a positively perceived self-efficacy and intention to share knowledge. This positive influence implies that individuals’ views are strongly influenced by their desire to do it. In other words, if the public servant has higher self-efficacy to support valuable knowledge, they have a more encouraging attitude toward knowledge sharing.

The sixth hypothesis claims that extrinsic rewards have a positive effect on the attitude toward knowledge sharing. The extrinsic reward from this study had no significant relationship with knowledge-sharing activities. Allameh et al. (2012) found that probable organizational rewards influence the staff’s attitude and intention for meaningful knowledge sharing. In contrast to these studies, Todorova and Mills (2014) found that adequate monetary extrinsic rewards raise intent to share knowledge. In the public context, especially in government, monetary and tangible rewards may not significantly contribute to the formation of attitudes to share their knowledge. Those who work in government, in general, have had the opportunity to increase the expertise funded by the government so they will not ask for compensation for the knowledge they have when they have to share.

The study found that there is a significant relationship between organizational climate and SDGs by the employees in the public sector, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Devina and Indriyani (2018) concluded that employees who are in an organization with a good climate will encourage knowledge-sharing behavior. Also, there is a significant relationship between social interaction and knowledge sharing. In contrast, Sjonell and Qvarnström (2013) showed that social interaction is only positively relevant in terms of sending knowledge and not receiving knowledge. Moreover, their study did not find any significant impact of social interaction on knowledge transfer within the country clusters.

Finally, as predicted, the results in Table 3 show that knowledge sharing intention positively affects perceived SDGs realization. This result seems to be nearly self-evident when one thinks of the high number of studies that have shown the notable explanatory capacity of behavior in several sectors. In this regard, Igbinovia and Osuchukwu (2018) suggested that the stronger the intention to engage in behavior, the more likely its performance. Coherently, Tommasetti et al. (2018) identified behavioral intention as the variable that best explained the dynamic, sustainable behavior of consumers; that is, the higher their intention to adopt sustainable practices, the greater the probability that they will prefer it.

6. Conclusion and Limitations

This study presented interesting ideas on how the public sector should respond to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The program itself was started in 2015 to end in 2030. In this sense, this work contributes to the dissemination of SDGs by investigating the predictors of public sector employee’s knowledge-sharing behavior toward SDGs using the planned behavior approach. In particular, this study would be useful for policymakers to build government policies by the adoption of sustainable behavior by using the Theory of Planned Behavior to predict knowledge sharing behavior through high knowledge sharing intention. In this regard, this research has provided insight into the important role played by attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and perceived environmental concern.

Despite its valuable contribution to theory and practice, the current study makes some recommendations. First, the local government should set up an effective reward system that will motivate employees to share SDGs-related information, such as the implementation goals, targets, and indicators in an action plan. Second, government and public sectors should improve their knowledge by emphasizing the interlinkages between the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, as well as between the goals themselves. They include targets devoted to mobilizing the means required to implement the SDGs, such as partnerships, financing, and enabling policies. Third, local government should actively provide capacity building among public employees through workshops and training, seminars, and conferences to improve the knowledge of employees on issues pertaining to SDGs.

Research to explore and examine the prediction of human behavior is very complex, and no single model can provide a comprehensive explanation of real-world phenomena (Park et al., 2012). The TPB has shown more utility in several fields, but it is still restrictive in its inability to consider environmental and economic effects. Over some years, scholars have used some concepts of the TPB and added other components from behavioral theory to make it a more integrated model (Macovei, 2015) and have tried to apply TPB in predicting pro-environmental behavior. Besides, more variables can be added to this model from other theories and fields, according to sustainable development research which includes economic, environmental, and social factors.