Sharing or hiding? The influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality on employee knowledge behaviors
Journal of Knowledge Management
ISSN: 1367-3270
Article publication date: 9 November 2022
Issue publication date: 24 July 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the dual-strategies theory of social rank and leader distance theory, this paper aims to investigate the influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM) on employee knowledge-related behaviors by considering the mediating role of perceived leader prestige or dominance and the moderating role of supervisor–subordinate guanxi (SSG).
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected survey data from 185 research and development employees in East China at three-time points. The authors conducted path analysis and bootstrapping-based analytic approach to test the hypotheses by Mplus7.0.
Findings
The results showed that supervisor BLM has a negative effect on employee knowledge sharing and a positive effect on knowledge hiding. Besides, perceived leader prestige or dominance mediated the relationship between supervisor BLM and employee knowledge hiding. Furthermore, SSG moderated the relationship between supervisor BLM and perceived leader prestige or dominance, as well as the indirect effects of supervisor BLM on knowledge hiding via perceived leader prestige or dominance.
Originality/value
There is limited research on investigating the influence of supervisor BLM in the field of knowledge management. The authors carried out this study to provide evidence of how and when supervisor BLM affects employee knowledge sharing and hiding.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This research was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71902068; 72172157); “Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (2722022DG007).
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Authors have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review their data if requested.
Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Citation
Chen, S., Liu, W., Zhu, Y. and Shu, P. (2023), "Sharing or hiding? The influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality on employee knowledge behaviors", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 27 No. 7, pp. 1830-1851. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-05-2022-0421
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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