Managing effective boards: how personal motivation and work experience drive organizational knowledge

Purpose This study aims to investigate the interplay between motivation, experience and knowledge acquisition among board members of nonprofit organizations, and it pursued this goal by generally adopting knowledge-based views and key concepts from self-determination theory (SDT). Board members’ capacity to acquire and interpret regulatory and procedural knowledge is critical for effective governance, especially in contexts undergoing institutional changes. The analysis focuses on boards of directors within Italian National Sport Federations which, following the 2018 reform of sports governance, were required to assimilate new institutional and organizational frameworks. Design/methodology/approach A survey was administered to 75 board members to examine whether SDT autonomous motivation is related to knowledge acquisition and whether work experience moderates this relation. Findings Results indicated that autonomous motivation was positively correlated with levels of knowledge acquisition, although the relation did not reach statistical significance. However, work experience moderated this association: autonomous motivation significantly enhanced knowledge acquisition among highly experienced members, but not among less experienced ones. These findings emphasize that work experience strengthens the motivational mechanisms underlying effective learning and knowledge assimilation. Originality/value This study extends existing research on nonprofit governance by integrating SDT with a knowledge-based view, offering novel insights into the ways motivational and experiential factors might shape regulatory learning within boards. The findings provide actionable implications for improving governance effectiveness and knowledge management in nonprofit organizations operating under evolving institutional conditions.