BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.15, No.2, 2023, BECE 1811 

 

 

 

 

How Proactive Personality Impacts Knowledge 

Sharing among Primary and Secondary Teachers: 

The Roles of Work Engagement and 

Organizational Innovative Climate 

By Zheng, J., Gao, Y., & Fu, X. 
Correspondence to: Jianjun Zheng, University of Chinese Academy of Social 

Sciences, China. E-mail: zhengjj-cass@sina.com  

NOWLEDGE Sharing is an important means for knowledge generation, 

accumulation, and innovation of schools and plays a significant role in 

alleviating teachers’ work pressures and upgrading their professional compe-

tence. Personality traits of teachers are key factors relating to their psycholo-

gy and attitudes towards knowledge sharing. This article draws on the job 

demands-resources theory to examine how proactive personality affects 

knowledge sharing among primary and secondary teachers and identify the 

mediating effect of teacher work engagement and the moderating effect of 

the organizational innovative climate. The purpose of the study is to provide 

guidance for schools’ knowledge management and equalization of educa-

tional resources.  

Research findings show that: 

i. Proactive personality poses a positive impact on teacher 

knowledge sharing behavior. Teacher work engagement mediates 

the relation between proactive personality and knowledge shar-

ing behavior. Teachers with highly proactive personality are 

more likely to meet job demands by integrating personal and or-

ganizational resources and increase engagement in work, conse-

quently enhancing knowledge sharing behavior. 

ii. The organizational innovative climate can effectively moderate 

the relation between work engagement and knowledge sharing in 

teachers. To be more concrete, the positive effects of work en-

gagement on knowledge sharing tend to strengthen as the organi-

zational innovative climate intensifies. In other words, the organ-

izational innovative climate generates more resources necessitat-

ed by teachers’ knowledge sharing activities. In addition, the 

mediating effect of work engagement on the relation between 

work engagement and knowledge sharing in teachers is signifi-

cantly moderated by the organizational innovative climate. 

K 

mailto:zhengjj-cass@sina.com


 

Vol.15, No.2, 2023, BECE 1812 

The article suggests that primary and secondary schools should em-

phasize the importance of proactive personality of teachers in the functioning 

of personal work resources in their education and instruction management; 

that schools should give teachers who exhibit more proactive behavior posi-

tive feedback and incentives to encourage front-line teachers to integrate their 

professional development with the improvement of education quality of the 

school; and that they should create an ideal climate to promote inter-teacher 

exchange and sharing of teaching expertise and techniques. 

 
Source: Teacher Education Research, 2023;35(03):66-73.