Ethical leadership and knowledge hiding: an intervening and interactional analysis

ABSTRACT

The work at hand examined the mediating role of meaningful work in the negative association between ethical leadership and service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior. The role of harmonious work passion as a contingent factor of the direct association between ethical leadership and service employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior was also tested. Based on time-lagged (three waves, two months apart) survey data collected from 471 employees working in 52 service sector firms spanning different industries, the results showed a negative association between ethical leadership and service employees’ engagement in knowledge-hiding behaviors, both directly and indirectly, via meaningful work. It was also found that the direct association between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding was contingent on harmonious work passion. The findings suggest that managers can deter service employees’ engagement in knowledge-hiding behaviors and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage by demonstrating ethical behaviors and bolstering employees’ perceptions of meaningful work.

摘要

本研究探讨了有意义的工作在道德领导力与服务业中员工知识隐藏行为之间负相关关系的中介作用。此外，本研究还验证了和谐工作热情在道德领导与服务员工知识隐藏行为之间直接关联的偶然因素的作用。基于时滞(三波，两个月的间隔)的调查，本研究收集了来自52个不同行业的服务公司的471名员工的数据，结果显示，道德领导和服务业中员工的知识隐藏行为之间存在直接和间接的负相关关系。此外，研究发现道德领导力与知识隐藏之间的直接联系取决于和谐的工作热情。研究结果表明，管理者可以通过展示道德行为和增强员工对有意义工作的感知来阻止服务员工的知识隐藏行为，从而获得可持续的竞争优.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethical leadership
• meaningful work
• knowledge hiding
• harmonious work passion
• service employees

关键词:

• 道德领导力；有意义的工作；知识隐藏；和谐工作热情；服务业员工

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).