How knowledge sharing shapes the performance of U.S. federal agencies: The importance of agency task characteristics
研究利用257个美国联邦机构的面板数据，发现知识共享对绩效的影响因机构任务特征而异，任务复杂性和异质性均会导致知识共享的边际收益递减。
Despite the diverse range of government tasks, public management studies have primarily focused on knowledge sharing as a means of employee empowerment, with little consensus about its organizational-level impact on performance. Employing a panel of 257 U.S. federal agencies (2010–2019), this study examines how knowledge sharing affects the perceived performance of an agency differently depending on the workforce’s prior knowledge base, as reflected in the agency’s task characteristics. Knowledge sharing is predicted to yield greater performance benefits in agencies with higher task complexity while exhibiting diminishing returns in those with higher task heterogeneity. Empirical findings reveal that both task complexity and task heterogeneity lead to diminishing returns from knowledge-sharing practices. These findings underscore the importance of effective organizational design for government effectiveness and highlight substantial variations in managerial contexts among government agencies.