Ethical Leadership and Knowledge Sharing: The Effects of Positive Reciprocity and Moral Efficacy

Abstract

Despite the pivotal function of knowledge sharing for enterprises in today’s highly competitive and ever-changing economic environment, the mechanism about how ethical leadership impacts employees’ knowledge sharing remains a largely unexplored domain in the literature. Drawing on the social exchange theory and social learning theory, this study examines how ethical leadership helps to encourage followers’ knowledge sharing behavior considering the dual-mediating effects of positive reciprocity and moral efficacy. A questionnaire-based survey is used to collect data in China. And structural equation modeling techniques are used to analyze the collected data in order to test the proposed hypothesis. Results show that ethical leadership has positive impact on followers’ knowledge sharing. It is also found that both positive reciprocity and moral efficacy play significant mediating effects, and they are equally important in accounting for the impact of ethical leadership on followers’ knowledge sharing. Based on the analysis results, this paper further discusses theoretical and practical implications.

How Ethical Leadership Promotes Knowledge Sharing: A Social Identity Approach

“…First, the results of this study have shown that ethical leadership is positively related to employee knowledge sharing. This is consistent with previous studies (e.g., Lei et al, 2019 ; Su et al, 2021 ). Current studies have fully demonstrated the importance of ethical leadership in promoting employee knowledge sharing.…”

“…Second, previous studies have found many mediators between ethical leadership and knowledge sharing, such as employees’ subjective well-being, social media interaction, positive reciprocity, moral efficacy, controlled motivation, moral identity, relational social capital etc. ( Bavik et al, 2018 ; Abdullah et al, 2019 ; Bhatti et al, 2020 ; Su et al, 2021 ). This study further to prove that employees’ identifications are also important mediators.…”

Linking Ethical Leadership to Followers’ Knowledge Sharing: Mediating Role of Psychological Ownership and Moderating Role of Professional Commitment

“…Leader support is critical for fostering a culture of knowledge sharing among company workers ( Tang et al, 2015 ). EL is considered an effective leadership style ( Bedi and Wordley, 2019 ), and is linked to KS behaviors ( Su et al, 2021 ). As part of knowledge management, the goal is to establish an environment that encourages individuals to share information and build a shared understanding of the company’s mission.…”

“…Organizational effectiveness and success are directly linked to EL and knowledge sharing (KS) connection and also linked to leaders’ ability to advise, organize, motivate, and empower their followers ( Le and Lei, 2018 ). Most studies on leadership focus on how leaders influence their subordinates, rather than how their subordinates get advantage from their leadership guidance and supervision ( Su et al, 2021 ). There is a dire need to find that how knowledge sharing behavior can be enhance in the presence of individual characteristics ( Luo et al, 2021 ).…”

Why Do People Hide Knowledge in the Online Knowledge Community? An Integrated Framework of Protection Motivation, Self-Determination, and Social Exchange Beliefs

“…According to Smedlund [108], reciprocal benefits enhance information sharing among community members by assuring knowledge owners that their efforts will be compensated in the future. Individuals who hold a more favorable attitude toward reciprocity are usually more likely to respond to beneficial treatment in a back-and-forth manner by providing benefits to other members in exchange for the reward [106,109]. These individuals generally believe that human beings are benevolent and trustworthy, and, as a result, they have a longer-term perspective on gains [110].…”