The Role of Prosocial Value Motive as a Sustainable Motivator for Academician’s Sustained Voluntary Knowledge Sharing Behavior

Knowledge management aims to establish effective and efficient strategies that enhance knowledge-sharing behaviour (KSB) sustainably, yet employees often hesitate to share their knowledge. Addressing this challenge, research has explored various motivations—both intrinsic and extrinsic—that foster KSB. However, challenges have necessitated the continual enhancement of motivators to sustain KSB. A debate exists in the literature regarding why individuals respond differently to KSB. Notably, there is a gap in empirical studies: researchers have overlooked the dual nature of KSB, which can be voluntary (at the individual’s discretion) or solicited (at the request of others). This study posits that the voluntary form of KSB—proactive in nature—is driven by the ‘Prosocial Value Motive to Volunteering.’ It is one of the few studies in the Kingdom of Bahrain adopting a volunteerism perspective to predict academics’ voluntary KSB in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), stimulated by their prosocial value motive. This perspective broadens the application of the ‘Functional Theory of Volunteers’ Motivation’ to predict ‘Voluntary knowledge-sharing behaviour’ as a form of social or voluntary engagement, leading to sustained voluntary knowledge-sharing behaviour (VKSB). Consequently, the findings will contribute to Bahrain’s ten-year strategic goals to become a regional educational hub and address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Empirically, the study has demonstrated that the prosocial value motive (PVM) significantly influences VKSB among academics. Theoretically, it enhances our understanding of VKSB as a manifestation of KSB and expands the ‘Functional Theory of Volunteers’ Motivation’ within the Bahraini context.