Ethical leadership and employee knowledge sharing: Exploring dual-mediation paths

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Abstract

Drawing on social learning and self-determination theories, this study investigates the mediating effects of controlled motivation for knowledge sharing and moral identity in the relationship between ethical leadership and employee knowledge sharing. We conducted a field study with 337 full-time employees to test our hypotheses. Results supported the mediating effects of both controlled motivation and moral identity in accounting for the relationship between ethical leadership and employee knowledge sharing. Our study is among the first to examine whether and why ethical leadership predicts employee knowledge sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Section snippets

Ethical leadership and employee knowledge sharing

As explained above, knowledge sharing refers to “acts of making knowledge available to others within the organization” (Ipe, 2003, p. 32). The construct of knowledge sharing is theoretically distinct from knowledge transfer. Although both constructs may be influenced by the social and environmental context (Szulanski et al., 2004, Wang and Noe, 2010), the enactment of knowledge sharing is often a function of the knowledge sharer's motivation, willingness, and attitude (Cabrera and Cabrera, 2002

Sample and procedures

Full-time employees at several multinational retail companies located in Hong Kong were invited to participate in our study. One of the authors contacted the human resources director of the companies to introduce the research project. The companies agreed to participate on the condition that they received a comprehensive report regarding the findings of the study, and they also asked for several training workshops about human resources management for their middle-level managers. All respondents

Measures

The survey items were originally developed in English. We translated them into Chinese by strictly following the back-translation procedures (Brislin, 1986). All the items in this study were rated on a five-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Appendix A presents the measures we used in our study.

Analytic strategies

Considering the nested nature of our data, we tested all the hypotheses in the current investigation with multi-level structural equation modeling (MSEM) using Mplus 7.70. We adopted the SEM approach, as it allows simultaneous estimation of multiple indirect paths and provides model fit indices (James and Brett, 1984, James et al., 2006). Following Anderson and Gerbing's (1988) recommendation, we first tested our hypothesized measurement model, followed by a comparison of the model fit between

Results

Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, alpha reliability coefficients, and correlations of the study variables. The zero-order correlations among the study variables are consistent with our expectations, with ethical leadership (r = 0.19, p < 0.01), employee moral identity (r = 0.15, p < 0.05), and employee controlled motivation for knowledge sharing (r = 0.17, p < 0.01) all being positively related to employee knowledge sharing.

Discussion

Our study is among the first to examine the effects of ethical leadership on employees' knowledge sharing behavior at work. Based on self-determination and social learning theories, our study demonstrated whether and how ethical leadership influences employees' knowledge sharing. Specifically, our findings indicate that ethical leadership matters in terms of employees' knowledge sharing behavior. Moreover, both employee controlled motivation for knowledge sharing and employee moral identity

Conclusion

Integrating self-determination and social learning theories, this study has examined the ethical leadership process underpinned by two different regulatory mechanisms. The results of our study reveal that ethical leadership is an effective way to cultivate knowledge sharing among employees through the use of both external and internal regulations. Our research provides initial empirical evidence supporting the theoretical conceptualization of ethical leadership as a dual-pillar construct. These

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to Ruodan Shao.

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