Impact of manager's social power on R&D employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour

Abstract

Sharing knowledge within the R&D team is one of the crucial ways to sustain competitive advantage. According to the social power theory, a manager has five types of power to influence the subordinate's behaviour. This study examines the impact of the manager's social power on R&D employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour. From the results of our original model, we proposed a revised model which assesses the interrelationship among five social powers. Data gathered from 105 R&D employees were employed to examine the relationship of the manager's social powers and R&D employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour. The results indicate that the manager's reward and expert powers have direct effects on knowledge-sharing behaviour, while coercive, legitimate, and reference powers have direct impact on expert power. Therefore, coercive, legitimate, and reference powers have indirect influence on knowledge-sharing behaviour.