Mine to share: psychological ownership and resilience in medical knowledge sharing

Purpose This study aims to examine individual-level factors associated with general professional knowledge sharing among medical doctors, focusing on psychological ownership as a predictor and resilience as a moderator. By distinguishing knowledge donating from knowledge collecting, the study examines whether motivational and personal adaptive resources operate differently across these two knowledge-sharing behaviours in high-pressure healthcare environments. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional design was employed. Data were collected through convenience sampling from 342 medical doctors in Nigeria (49.7% male; 50.3% female; mean age = 34.63 years, SD = 7.72) using validated scales measuring psychological ownership, resilience, and knowledge-sharing behaviours (knowledge donating and collecting). Findings The results revealed that psychological ownership positively predicted both knowledge donating and knowledge collecting. Resilience did not predict any of these dimensions of knowledge sharing. However, it attenuated the relationship between psychological ownership and knowledge collecting, but not knowledge donating. Research limitations/implications The use of cross-sectional and convenience sampling limits the generalizability of the findings. Future studies should adopt longitudinal or experimental designs to validate the moderation effects across broader samples and organizational settings. Practical implications The findings suggest that strengthening organization-based psychological ownership can enhance knowledge collecting among medical doctors, particularly under conditions of lower resilience. However, because resilience buffered this relationship rather than amplifying it, resilience-building alone is unlikely to increase knowledge exchange and may be associated with reduced reliance on ownership-based motivations. Consequently, efforts to promote collaboration in hospital settings should prioritize organizational structures and relational supports that facilitate safe knowledge sharing, with resilience initiatives positioned as complementary rather than reinforcing mechanisms. Originality/value This study distinguishes knowledge donating from knowledge collecting in examining psychological ownership and resilience among medical doctors. Its originality lies in showing that resilience may not uniformly reinforce the behavioural expression of psychological ownership: rather, its moderating role differs across knowledge-sharing behaviours, highlighting the behaviour-specific interplay between motivational and personal adaptive resources in healthcare settings.