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1 – 10 of over 2000Sanjay Kumar Singh, Shashank Mittal, Atri Sengupta and Rabindra Kumar Pradhan
This study aims to examine a dual-pathway model that recognizes two distinct (formal and informal) but complementary mechanisms of knowledge exchanges – knowledge sharing and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine a dual-pathway model that recognizes two distinct (formal and informal) but complementary mechanisms of knowledge exchanges – knowledge sharing and knowledge helping. It also investigates how team members use their limited human and psychosocial capital for prosocial knowledge effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey-based approach was used to examine the hypotheses of the study. A moderated-mediation model was proposed and tested using bootstrap approach.
Findings
Knowledge sharing and knowledge helping were found to be the significant links through which human capital (capability) and psychosocial capital (motivation and efficacy) significantly predict prosocial knowledge effectiveness. Post hoc analysis suggests that human capital through knowledge sharing influences team learning, whereas the psychosocial capital through knowledge helping influences team leadership.
Originality/value
The present study found two distinct but complementary and yet necessary mechanisms of knowledge exchanges to be linked as the important outlay for the human and psychosocial capital to be effective in the prosocial knowledge behaviours.
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Abdallah Wumpini Issahaka and Rune Lines
With the transition into a knowledge economy, the concept of leading knowledge workers (KWs) has gained an increasing amount of attention in organisational studies and among…
Abstract
Purpose
With the transition into a knowledge economy, the concept of leading knowledge workers (KWs) has gained an increasing amount of attention in organisational studies and among practitioners. The emerging literature on the leadership of KW addresses an important phenomenon, but theoretical underpinnings and empirical inquiry into leadership effectiveness in a KW context do not agree on a common conceptualisation of KWs. Thus, a concerted research effort seems warranted.
Design/methodology/approach
The purpose of this study is to take stock of the existing literature on the leadership of KW. Based on a critical literature review, this paper provides a timely synthesis of the diffuse literature and identifies research gaps facing the leadership of KW field.
Findings
This paper suggests that the literature to date is deficient in terms of theory and evidence for how KWs are different from other classes of workers and argues that this deficiency stands in the way of developing ideas about how KWs could be effectively led.
Research limitations/implications
This paper extends a discussion on establishing “KW” as a clear, independent construct and how the nomological network in which KW is situated (i.e. leadership antecedents, and workplace outcomes) may be elucidated, extended and researched.
Originality/value
This paper extends beyond the identified research gaps and findings to present an agenda for future research. Specifically, we propose that insights from research in educational psychology should be used as a platform for theorising about how to lead in a KW context.
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Ashmiza Mahamed Ismail and Christine Elizabeth Welch
Why and when people working in organisations hide their knowledge has received considerable academic attention. However, little attention has been paid to knowledge hiding in…
Abstract
Purpose
Why and when people working in organisations hide their knowledge has received considerable academic attention. However, little attention has been paid to knowledge hiding in academia itself, even though universities are known as places where knowledge is shared. This study aims to consider the dilemma faced by academics when undertaking research work: should they share or hide what they are doing?
Design/methodology/approach
Using empirical evidence drawn from 20 academics in a number of UK Business Schools, the authors carried out in-depth interviews to investigate the effects of strategic knowledge hiding (SKH) on research knowledge work. The authors argue that SKH can drive competitive individuals to establish research superiority.
Findings
The findings revealed that most respondents have, for strategic reasons, hidden their tacit and/or explicit knowledge from others during ongoing research processes, but have, at the same time, purposefully sought for knowledge from targeted colleagues.
Originality/value
The findings extend the previous literature by revealing not only the distinctive individual antecedents of SKH but also its positive outcomes. The findings illustrate a pioneering contribution of a systematic model of SKH among university business school academics.
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Ayesha Irum, Koustab Ghosh and Agrata Pandey
Contemporary organizations report a sharp increase in the incidences of workplace incivility. The purpose of this paper is to capture the impact of workplace incivility on the…
Abstract
Purpose
Contemporary organizations report a sharp increase in the incidences of workplace incivility. The purpose of this paper is to capture the impact of workplace incivility on the victimized employee's knowledge-hiding behaviours. The paper proposes that the victim will hide knowledge by playing dumb, evasive hiding and rationalized hiding behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper first focusses on a review of literature on workplace incivility and summarizes the findings through a conceptual review model. Subsequently, the paper puts forth a conceptual model depicting the relationship of incivility with knowledge hiding.
Findings
Drawing from the affective events theory, the paper demonstrates that incivility will arouse negative emotions in the victim, enticing the individual to respond by engaging in knowledge hiding. It establishes knowledge hiding to be more than just a consequence of reciprocal exchange relationships. The authors also propose this positive relationship to vary with gender.
Originality/value
The paper draws attention towards the counterproductive knowledge behaviours that can be stirred as a result of negative emotional experiences. It explores the employee’s response to an active form of workplace mistreatment, workplace incivility. It advocates the need to check uncivil and disrespectful behaviours in the organization so as to build a healthy work environment.
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Sarra Berraies and Abdelhak Chouiref
Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this paper aims to investigate the impact of team climate (TC) supporting trust, cohesion and innovativeness on knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this paper aims to investigate the impact of team climate (TC) supporting trust, cohesion and innovativeness on knowledge management (KM) in teams through the mediating role of teamwork engagement (TWEG).
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 246 employees working in Tunisian knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs) and involved in 69 service R&D teams. The authors applied the partial least squares-structural equation modeling approach for data analysis using SMART PLS 3.2 software.
Findings
Findings provide evidence that TWEG mediates the link between TC characterized by trust, cohesion and innovativeness and KM in teams. In the line of the JD-R model, results also show that such TC provides job resources to team members that act as vitamins nurturing TWEG, which in turn boosts KM in teams.
Originality/value
To shed light on the micro-level foundations of KM, this paper enriches the KM literature through pioneering the examination of the effect of TC on KM in teams. It proposes an extension of the JD-R model through highlighting the TWEG’s mediating role in the motivational pathway leading teams to invest in KM activities under a supportive TC. It provides key insights into the importance for managers to implement team-oriented policies toward cultivating trust, innovativeness and cohesion within teams to create more dedicated, vigorous and absorbed teams in which intrinsically motivated knowledge workers are likely to collectively engage in KM activities.
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This study aims to look at the interaction dynamics among engineering professionals from the lens of status hierarchies and derive on the role of intragroup conflicts prevalent in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to look at the interaction dynamics among engineering professionals from the lens of status hierarchies and derive on the role of intragroup conflicts prevalent in engineering teams. It develops and tests a comprehensive moderated-mediation model combining interpersonal status dynamics (of talent and conflicts prevalent within the team) with team external power dynamics (with other teams) and their resultant effect on team performance through the intragroup conflicts.
Design/methodology/approach
Data at team level from 1,265 members belonging to 218 engineering teams were used for hypothesis testing.
Findings
Process and status conflicts fully explain the negative effect of having more talented members in teams on team performance. High talented teams have lower levels of process and status conflicts and higher levels of performance when they have high power.
Research limitations/implications
This paper contributes to the literature on engineering teams, team status, power and conflicts.
Practical implications
This paper advises manager on where to exactly look for problems in the internal working of talented teams and conditions that could negatively impact their performance.
Originality/value
Research on teams’ internal composition and team performance link remains inconclusive. The established pattern of thinking in both practice and research is that having more talented members in the engineering teams is attached to superior performance. Whereas it is often the case that even after having multiple talented members, teams are not able to perform well. With some exceptions, studies have not paid attention to the dynamics of having more talented members and its flip side on team performance.
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Preeti Dwivedi, Vijit Chaturvedi and Jugal Kishore Vashist
This research aims to examine the influence of transformational leadership on employee efficiency. The research also examines the role of knowledge sharing as a mediator between…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to examine the influence of transformational leadership on employee efficiency. The research also examines the role of knowledge sharing as a mediator between transformational leadership and employee efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on the survey conducted among 200 employees of logistics firms. Exploratory Factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) approaches are used for the evaluation.
Findings
The study found that transformational leadership has positive and significant influence on employee efficiency. The research also demonstrates that after introducing knowledge sharing, it fully mediated the influence of transformational leadership on employee efficiency. The study suggests that, if leaders share their knowledge and expertise among the team, employees have a propensity to be highly effective and efficient than without knowledge sharing.
Research limitations/implications
Blue collar staff and unskilled labors of the firms are not included in the study. So, the study is limited to white collar staff only which can further be expanded by considering other ground staff. Also few or no such researches have been conducted in logistics firms, particularly in Indian logistics firms. So, the result of this study can be used as reference to explore the area. This study can be replicated in the logistics firms of other regions also.
Practical implications
The finding of the study will help the top management of the organizations to formulate strategies to enhance its senior-subordinate relationship through knowledge sharing. The study also suggests that regular dissemination of knowledge among the team improves the efficiency of the team members and hence the performance of the organization.
Originality/value
This research examines the degree to which knowledge sharing acts as a mediator between transformational leadership and employee efficiency, which has not been found in previous studies.
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Organizations learn semi-automatically through experience or consciously through deliberate learning efforts. As there seems to be a “black-box” in the possible linkages between…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizations learn semi-automatically through experience or consciously through deliberate learning efforts. As there seems to be a “black-box” in the possible linkages between deliberate learning and new practice implementation, this paper aims to develop and test a process model, linking deliberate learning and new practice implementation through complementary competencies of task and environmental flexibility.
Design/methodology/approach
As part of a field study, health-care improvement program (to transfer the improvement training program for new practice implementation) of 186 HCUs was used for testing our hypothesis. In addition to descriptive statistics, multiple hierarchical regressions and bootstrapping were used to test the study hypotheses.
Findings
Findings suggest that deliberate learning is positively and significantly related with new practice implementation, and dynamic capabilities in the form of task and environmental flexibility mediates this relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The present study makes theoretical and practical contributions by linking literature from new practice, organizational learning and dynamic capabilities; and by delving into the deliberate learning activities undertaken by health-care units.
Originality/value
Organizational learning in health care has almost become inevitable today due to the ever-changing dynamics of the industry. Barring handful of studies, the current state of literature is almost entirely tilted towards experience-based learning and deliberate learning is not well studied. To address this gap, the study aims to develop and test a process model linking development of dynamic capabilities with deliberate learning and new practice implementation. Further, findings of this study will help organizations and managers to understand and thereby effectively manage new practice implementation process through the use of deliberate activities.
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Noof Aldaheri, Gustavo Guzman and Heather Stewart
This study aims to explore how professional–cultural knowledge is reciprocally shared between experienced expatriates and novice local nurses. To address this, the situated…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how professional–cultural knowledge is reciprocally shared between experienced expatriates and novice local nurses. To address this, the situated learning in practice lens is combined with social exchange lens.
Design/methodology/approach
An interpretive case study methodology enabled an exploratory approach into the knowledge-sharing practices between experienced expatriates and novice local nurses in Saudi Arabia.
Findings
Insights gained in the fieldwork suggest that professional–cultural knowledge sharing (KS) often occurred through three primary practices, namely, developing a professional–cultural meaning, forming clinical competency development opportunities and intervening in unfamiliar professional–cultural situations. In addition, two micro-level conditions shaped the reciprocity of professional–cultural KS practices between expatriate and local nurses, which were individual differences and situational conditions.
Originality/value
This study advances and improves the understanding of two intertwined but rarely studied aspects of knowledge-sharing practices. The exploratory lens sought and gained rich insights into the knowledge-sharing practices between experienced and novice individuals and expatriate and local individuals.
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Abdul Gaffar Khan, Yan Li, Zubair Akram and Umair Akram
Extant scholars identified negative workplace gossip as a social stressor that negatively influences employees’ behavior and attitude. Despite the burgeoning interest in workplace…
Abstract
Purpose
Extant scholars identified negative workplace gossip as a social stressor that negatively influences employees’ behavior and attitude. Despite the burgeoning interest in workplace stressors, limited studies have explored how the detrimental consequences of targets’ perceived negative workplace gossip spur their emotions and behaviors. Grounding on conservation of resources and ego depletion theories, this study aims to investigate why and how targets’ negative workplace gossip may contribute to trigger knowledge hiding. Specifically, the authors explore the underlying mechanism of personal ego depletion and boundary conditions of organizational justice to shed new light on the above process.
Design/methodology/approach
Using two time-wave survey, the authors collected 340 sample data from employees working in high-tech companies of China. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine hypothesized relationships of moderated mediation model.
Findings
The empirical results revealed that negative workplace gossip exacerbates knowledge hiding by increasing personal ego depletion. Furthermore, through testing moderated mediation model, the results showed that organizational justice (i.e. distributive and procedural justice) with the low presence moderates the stronger strength of the linkage between negative workplace gossip and personal ego depletion, and likewise, it also moderates the stronger effect of negative workplace gossip on knowledge hiding via personal ego depletion.
Practical implications
This study recommends several guidelines for managers and practitioners to mitigate negative gossip by strengthening organizational justice.
Originality/value
This study first enriches novel understanding in the literature between negative workplace gossip and knowledge hiding by using a new emotional mechanism (i.e. personal ego depletion). This research also contributes new insights by incorporating contextual boundary conditions (i.e. organizational justice) that have not been yet researched on negative gossip and knowledge hiding linkage.
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