The Effect of Social Vitality on the Relationship between Religious Orientation and Willingness to Share Knowledge among Teachers

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Ali biranvand ¹
• Gholamreza Ghasemnejad ²
• karim Alikarami ³

¹ Associate Professor, Department of Knowledge and Information Science, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Social Science, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

³ instructor, department of Social Science, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

10.22067/infosci.2025.92229.1233

Abstract

Introduction: Examining social factors can help develop a knowledge sharing culture in an education organization. One of the factors influencing knowledge sharing in the education system is religious orientation. Examining the relationship between religious orientation and knowledge sharing behaviors, especially under the influence of factors such as cheerfulness, leads to the formation of intra-organizational activities. Examining this relationship is very important for organizations such as education that seek to improve knowledge sharing, because it can lead to increased productivity among teachers. Accordingly, this research investigated the mediating role of social vitality in the relationship between religious orientation and willingness to knowledge sharing among teachers employed in the Alborz province education system.
 
Methodology: This research is applied and descriptive-correlational in nature. The relationships between variables were discussed within a causal model. The population consisted of teachers working in the Alborz province education system in 2024. Using simple random sampling and the Cochran formula, 379 teachers were selected from a population of 25,300. Data was collected using Allport and Ross's (1967) Religious Orientation Scale, Lindenberg's (2000) Social Vitality Questionnaire, and Jain et al. (2015) Knowledge Sharing Questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the reliability of these instruments were 0.81, 0.82, and 0.71, respectively. Path analysis using LISREL software was used to analyze the data.
 
Findings: Regarding the research population, out of 390 questionnaires received, 282 were female and 108 were male. 193 were primary school teachers and 197 were secondary school teachers. No religious minorities were observed in the statistical sample. The average work experience was 18.3 years and the average age was 39 years for the statistical sample.The results of the present study showed that the direct relationship between extrinsic religious orientation and willingness to knowledge sharing is not significant, but intrinsic religious orientation has a positive and significant effect on willingness to knowledge sharing. These results confirm that the higher the intrinsic religious orientation, the more mentally prepared individuals will be to carry out altruistic activities and intra-organizational cooperation, including knowledge sharing. Individuals with extrinsic religious orientation consider religion solely as a means to achieve other goals. Examining the effect of social happiness on the relationship between religious orientation and willingness to knowledge sharing showed that extrinsic and intrinsic religious orientation have a positive effect on the dimension of affection. Of these two, the effect of intrinsic religious orientation is greater. On the other hand, the effect of the dimension of affection on the willingness to knowledge sharing is also positive. Therefore, religious orientation in both the extrinsic and intrinsic dimensions has a positive and significant effect on the willingness to knowledge sharing through affection. The results of the effect of teachers' behavioral endorsement dimension on the relationship between religious orientation and willingness to knowledge sharing showed that the external dimension of religious orientation has a negative effect and the internal dimension of religious orientation has a positive effect on the relationship between religious orientation and willingness to knowledge sharing. On the other hand, the behavioral endorsement dimension has a positive effect on teachers' willingness to knowledge sharing. Therefore, it can be concluded that religious orientation in both external and internal dimensions has a positive and significant effect on teachers' willingness to knowledge sharing through the behavioral endorsement dimension. According to the results obtained, extrinsic religious orientation has a negative effect on the status dimension of teachers and intrinsic orientation has a positive effect. The status dimension has a positive effect on the willingness to share teachers' knowledge. Therefore, it can be concluded that religious orientation in both the extrinsic and intrinsic dimensions has a positive and significant effect on the willingness to share teachers' knowledge through the status dimension. But regarding the effect of extrinsic and intrinsic religious orientation on the comfort dimension of teachers, the results showed that both extrinsic orientation and intrinsic orientation have a positive effect on the motivation dimension. The motivation dimension also has a positive effect on teachers' willingness to share knowledge. Therefore, it can be concluded that religious orientation has a positive and significant effect on teachers' willingness to share knowledge through the motivation dimension. Internal religious orientation has an indirect and significant effect on teachers' willingness to knowledge sharing through social well-being dimensions. The direct influence of the willingness to knowledge sharing from internal religious orientation is stronger than that from external religious orientation. The results of the influence of the willingness to share knowledge from social well-being dimensions also showed that the dimensions of comfort, motivation, affection, behavioral approval, and status have the greatest effect on the willingness to knowledge sharing, respectively. Religious orientation has a positive effect on social well-being.
 
Conclusion: Intrinsic religious orientation indirectly and positively affects teachers' willingness to share knowledge through social vitality. Unlike intrinsic religious orientation, extrinsic religious orientation indirectly and negatively affects teachers' willingness to share knowledge through social vitality. Based on these results, just as having a good sense of place in the workplace leads to knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing also improves workplace happiness.

Keywords

• Religious orientation
• social capital
• social vitality
• knowledge sharing
• teachers

Main Subjects

• Knowledge Management

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