The Paradox of Spreadsheet Self-Efficacy: Social Incentives for Informal Knowledge Sharing in End-User Programming

2024-08-15

IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages / Human-Centric Computing Languages and Environments

AI Summary

This study investigates the determinants of informal knowledge sharing (KS) intentions among administrative and financial professionals in spreadsheet programming. Method: Grounded in social cognitive theory, we conducted a survey of 100 practitioners and employed multiple regression analysis to identify key antecedents of KS willingness. Contribution/Results: We identify three significant predictors—self-efficacy, reputational benefits, and knowledge encoding costs. Notably, we uncover a “self-efficacy paradox”: respondents exhibit high confidence in performing specific spreadsheet tasks yet report low perceived competence in general spreadsheet proficiency. Reputational incentives exert a statistically significant positive effect on KS intention, whereas the cognitive and procedural costs associated with formalizing spreadsheet knowledge constitute the primary inhibiting factor. These findings provide empirical evidence and theoretical grounding for designing spreadsheet tools that actively support and incentivize collaborative knowledge sharing.

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Web
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: The sharing economy
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Content-based information diffusion
• Social Networks and Social Media: Influence propagation, information diffusion, and the prediction on networks

Abstract

Informal Knowledge Sharing (KS) is vital for enduser programmers to gain expertise. To better understand how personal (self-efficacy), social (reputational gains, trust between colleagues), and software-related (codification effort) variables influence spreadsheet KS intention, we conducted a multiple regressions analysis based on survey data from spreadsheet users ($n=100$) in administrative and finance roles. We found that high levels of spreadsheet self-efficacy and a perception that sharing would result in reputational gains predicted higher KS intention, but individuals who found knowledge codification effortful showed lower KS intention. We also observed that regardless of occupation, users tended to report a lower sense of self-efficacy in their general spreadsheet proficiency, despite also reporting high self-efficacy in spreadsheet use for job-related contexts. Our findings suggest that acknowledging and designing for these social and personal variables can help avoid situations where experienced individuals refrain unnecessarily from sharing, with implications for spreadsheet design.

Problem

• How self-efficacy affects spreadsheet knowledge sharing
• Impact of social incentives on informal KS intention
• Role of codification effort in inhibiting KS

Innovation

• Multiple regressions analyze spreadsheet knowledge sharing
• Survey data from 100 administrative and finance users
• Design for social and personal variables enhances sharing