Linking ethical leadership to knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding : the mediating role of psychological engagement
Abstract
Despite the strides made in ethical-leadership research, surprisingly, no systematic attempts have been made to reveal the relationship between ethical leadership and knowledge management among direct reports, together with, which is an increasingly eminent variable in relation to employee well-being, psychological engagement. Integrating research on ethical leadership, employee engagement, and knowledge management literature, this study aims to provide new conceptual insights and empirical evidence on the mediating process underlying the ethical leadership-knowledge management relationship. Results from 150 leader-follower dyads (N = 300) of university full-time students at a university in Hong Kong disclosed that ethical leadership has a positive effect on knowledge sharing behavior, and the former is negatively related to knowledge hiding behavior among subordinates. Additionally, these relationships are partially mediated by employee psychological engagement. Implications for research and practice will be discussed.