Abusive supervision, knowledge sharing, and individual factors

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 1106-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seckyoung Loretta Kim ◽  
Soojin Lee ◽  
Seokhwa Yun

Purpose – By applying conservation-of-resource (COR) theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of a leader’s destructive behaviors, i.e., abusive supervision, on employee knowledge sharing and the moderating effects of learning goal orientation and self-enhancement motives on the aforementioned relationship. Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses were tested using regression analysis on data from 245 employees in South Korea. Findings – The results showed that abused employees who experience depleted resources are likely to reduce their level of knowledge sharing, in accordance with COR theory. Furthermore, this research demonstrated that the negative effects of abusive supervision may differ depending on individual factors. Specifically, when an individual employee has low internal motivation or available resources for knowledge sharing (low learning orientation and high self-enhancement motive), the detrimental consequence of abusive supervision on knowledge sharing is worsened. Practical implications – The research suggests that managers should be aware of the deleterious effects of abusive supervision on knowledge sharing and should invest more time and effort in preventing abusive supervision in the workplace. Originality/value – Although organizations might invest significant amounts of effort in knowledge sharing, abusive supervision could be a barrier that discourages employees’ knowledge sharing. Yet, the strength of aforementioned relationship is dependent on individual factors. In order to achieve organizational effectiveness through knowledge sharing, the critical role of leaders’ behavior and employees’ characteristics or motivation should not be overlooked.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Talat Islam ◽  
Saima Ahmad ◽  
Ahmad Kaleem ◽  
Khalid Mahmood

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to extend the scant literature on the effect of abusive supervision on knowledge sharing by examining the roles of Islamic work ethic and learning goal orientation in moderating the effect.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes a cross-lagged survey research design to collect data from 735 employees working in the services and manufacturing sectors of Pakistan.FindingsThe data analysis revealed that abusive supervision has a damaging effect on knowledge sharing in the workplace. However, employee learning goal orientation and the Islamic work ethic help in mitigating this detrimental effect.Research limitations/implicationsThe main theoretical implication is to advance knowledge on the boundary conditions that help in mitigating the undesirable effect of abusive supervision on sharing of knowledge in organizational settings.Practical implicationsThis paper provides practical insights into mitigating the damaging effects of abusive supervision, a prevalent issue in Asian societies, through the lenses of Islamic business ethics and learning goal orientation.Originality/valueThis is the first study that examines the boundary conditions placed by the Islamic work ethic and learning goal orientation around the relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge sharing in the context of Pakistan.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Ju ◽  
Jingjing Yao ◽  
Li Ma

PurposeJob involvement is an important predictor of how well employees perform and feel at work. However, despite fruitful findings, little is known about how person–job (P–J) fit affects job involvement.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a cross-sectional design and collected data from 375 employees and 50 managers. Multivariate regression was applied to test the moderated curvilinear model.FindingsThis study found an inverted U-shaped relationship between P–J fit and job involvement. For employees with a strong performance goal orientation, maximum job involvement occurred at a higher level of P–J fit, whereas for employees with a strong learning goal orientation, maximum job involvement occurred at a moderate level of P–J fit.Practical implicationsManagers should be aware that solely maximizing fit may not constantly yield positive outcomes, and that ignoring differences in employee needs and goals may be counterproductive.Originality/valueThe study challenges the conventional wisdom that a high P–J fit is always productive by showing that a high fit may sometimes jeopardize job involvement, particularly for certain employees.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1109-1123 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Israilidis ◽  
Evangelia Siachou ◽  
Louise Cooke ◽  
Russell Lock

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify individual variables with an impact on knowledge sharing and explore the under-discussed construct of employees’ ignorance. This can enhance the knowledge-sharing process and facilitate the development of greater intellectual capital. Design/methodology/approach – Eighty-four dependent variables affecting knowledge sharing are analyzed and classified into 11 categories. In addition, the direct effect of employees’ ignorance on knowledge sharing is introduced and empirically investigated in a case study of a multinational organization operating within the aerospace and defense industry. Findings – The findings suggest that employees’ ignorance may negatively affect their intention to share knowledge, thus leading to poor decision-making and communication in organizations. Employees’ ignorance could also limit the organizational ability to repel external threats, implement innovation and manage future risks. Originality/value – A classification scheme based on different categories of employees’ ignorance is developed, providing tailor-made recommendations for practitioners facing different types of ill-informed organizational scenarios. Further, the need to shift the emphasis away from the management of knowledge to the management of ignorance is also an important contribution of this paper.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
HsiuJu Rebecca Yen ◽  
Paul Jen-Hwa Hu ◽  
Yi-Chun Liao

Purpose This study aims to examine how a manager’s learning goal orientation (LGO) influences frontline service employees’ (FSEs’) engagement in cross-selling activities. Such engagements must exist before they can achieve service–sales ambidexterity. Drawing on achievement goal theory and the meaning-making perspective, this study predicts that learning-oriented managers encourage and foster FSEs’ cross-selling behaviors by facilitating their ability to derive positive meaning from the cross-selling initiative. They do so by conveying high-quality information about the initiative and related changes to individual employees, as well as by encouraging the formation of a collective perception of open communications within the work unit. Design/methodology/approach Hierarchical (nested) data from 39 managers and 357 FSEs of a major logistic service company are used to test the hypotheses. Findings As predicted, a manager’s LGO relates positively to FSEs’ cross-selling activities, through sequential mediations of the hypothesized communication mechanisms and employees’ benefits-finding. Originality/value A manager’s LGO is an important antecedent of FSEs’ cross-selling behaviors. This study establishes this influence and clarifies the processes by which it occurs. This study also extends previous research by specifying the important role of employees’ meaning-making, which prompts them to adopt cross-selling, as a mediator of the multilevel communication influences that result from their managers’ LGO.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (4/5) ◽  
pp. 509-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Qamar Zia ◽  
Muhammad Naveed ◽  
Muhammad Adnan Bashir ◽  
Aamir Feroz Shamsi

Purpose Organizations are facing pressure to reduce costs of training and enhancing the role of self-development that is self-driven and contextual in nature as a means to supplement employee development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of individual and situational factors on self-development as well as the moderating role of situational factors. Individual factors are referred to personal characteristics, i.e. learning goal orientation and proactive personality, while situational factors are environmental conditions, including job autonomy and empowering environment. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from 280 middle managers of the banking sector. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was conducted to validate the model. Findings The study findings revealed a significant direct relationship of individual (learning goal orientation and proactive personality) and situational (empowering environment and job autonomy) factors with self-development. The study also found only a significant moderating effect of empowering environment in relation to learning goal orientation and self-development, correspondingly job autonomy moderates the relationship of proactive personality and self-development. Practical implications The study concludes with offering some implication for organization to focus on self-development activities by providing an empowering environment and job autonomy to its employees, which will result to minimize the overall cost of training. Organizations should also identify the individual factors that lead to self-development like proactive personality and learning goal orientation. Originality/value This study gives new insight on the predictors of self-development and their interaction. This study may be a pioneer to empirically validate a theoretical model about the interaction of situational factors between individual factors and self-development. Furthermore, it contributes and advances our knowledge by demonstrating how individual and situational factors are influencing middle mangers’ self-development in workplace.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 899-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisung Park ◽  
Soo-Young Shin ◽  
Sangmin Lee ◽  
Se-Ri No

We examined the role of the chief executive officer's (CEO) learning goal orientation in the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational creativity in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME). With data from 64 Korean SME from different respondents (CEOs and HRM managers), we examined the congruence of messages between formality represented by knowledge-sharing HRM practices and informality symbolized by the CEO's learning goal orientation in fostering organizational creativity. According to the analytical results, appraisal based on the extent of knowledge sharing enhanced organizational creativity when the CEO's learning goal orientation was high by sending congruent messages but not by monetary reward systems to promote knowledge sharing. The results have important theoretical and practical implications for the fit between formality/informality and organizational creativity in SME.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Zia Aslam ◽  
Safiah Omar ◽  
Mohammad Nazri ◽  
Hasnun Anip Bustaman ◽  
Mohammed Mustafa Mohammed Yousif

PurposeThough employee job engagement has been one of the few most proliferated organizational concepts during the last two decades, evidence on how to achieve an engaged workforce is unclear. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the engagement literature by investigating the role of interpersonal leadership in developing job engagement through the relative importance of deep acting emotional labor skills, initiative climate and learning goal orientation as intervening mechanisms.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed an online self-reported survey in data collection, gathering input from 438 frontline service employees in Malaysia. The data was then tested using the structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the proposed parallel mediation model of the study.FindingsThe findings demonstrated that deep acting emotional labor skills, initiative climate and learning goal orientation were significantly effective in intervening mechanisms through which interpersonal leadership impacted job engagement.Practical implicationsThis study offers insightful evidence that can be utilized by service organizations to improve employees' job engagement. The evidence derived from this study suggests that interpersonal leadership is a valuable organizational resource that can help carve pathways through which the objective of employee job engagement can be achieved. Therefore, while crafting organizational interventions for employee job engagement, service managers should address the findings of this study.Originality/valueDespite the evidence presented in previous literature on the notable relationship between leadership and engagement, there is yet to be an apt understanding of the impact of new leadership perspectives and the intervening mechanisms in predicting job engagement. This study attempts to fill the research gap.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seckyoung Loretta Kim ◽  
Seung Yeon Son ◽  
Seokhwa Yun

Purpose Drawing on social exchange theory (SET) and conservation of resources (COR) theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the negative consequence of abusive supervision on knowledge sharing. Further, this paper explores the moderating role of organizational tenure in the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ knowledge sharing behavior applying sense-making theory. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses were tested using regression analysis across two independent studies conducted in South Korea. Findings The authors found evidence that there was a negative relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, the aforementioned relationship was strengthened for those with longer organizational tenure. Originality/value This research deepens our understanding of the negative consequences of abusive supervision on employees’ knowledge sharing behavior by drawing on SET and COR theory. Through two independent studies, the results demonstrated that employees who receive abusive treatment from their supervisors tend to reduce their knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, this detrimental effect is stronger for key knowledge providers, namely long-tenured employees.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daria Sarti

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to research on the broad theme of knowledge-sharing (KS) behaviours and the impact that different organizational tenure may have on them. In this relationship, the relevance of the leader in enhancing sharing dynamics among employees is highlighted. Design/methodology/approach This study focuses on KS attitudes among employees with different numbers of years spent in the same organization, seen through the theoretical lens of a social exchange perspective. Specifically, the role of the leader in building a social exchange with co-workers is investigated as a managerial lever able to favour KS among a more experienced workforce. This paper starts by considering the relationship between organizational tenure and employees’ KS attitude. Furthermore, the specific role played by the leader–member social exchange with regard to this relation is described. The study’s hypotheses are tested on data collected from employees (N = 150) working in a non-profit organization located in central Italy. Findings The results suggest that a negative relationship exists between employees’ organizational tenure and KS attitude. In addition, the critical role of a leader’s support is demonstrated in moderating the effect of different organizational tenures on the KS attitude. Research limitations/implications This paper has both theoretical and managerial implications. Originality/value This paper contributes to the research on the important role of leaders in enhancing KS behaviors among co-workers when the number of years in the same organizations is a variable of interest.


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