Digital Knowledge Sharing and Work Creativity while working from home during the COVID-19 Pandemic Settings: Evidence from Lebanese Teleworkers

Abstract

COVID-19 imposed a new working behavior. As governments imposed national confinements to contain the virus, companies shifted towards WFH – Working from Home further relying on digital applications to facilitate the exchange of work-related information and digital knowledge sharing (DKS) among co-workers. Although many scholars outlined the influence of DKS on the Creative Performance (CP) of knowledgeable teleworkers according to previous research, WFH was considered as optional work behavior, while it has become a reality during COVID-19. Thus, this paper aims to elucidate the various, still unexplored aspects of working from home, reassessing the correlation between DKS and CP next to studying the possible influence of contextual factors (organizational climate, individual factors, and demographics) on both DKS and teleworkers’ CP. In this context, a cross-sectional survey was distributed online to 263 Lebanese teleworkers. The study settles that digital technology is a pivotal factor in affecting employees’ digital knowledge sharing and therefore overall business performance as well and highlights the need to develop new theoretical approaches specific for the working from home (WFH) context.