"Knowledge sharing, psychological safety, and performance: Moderating effect of regulatory focus"

Abstract

Despite the potential impact of supervisors and coworkers in the social context, various sources of knowledge have rarely been covered within the research model. The current study (a) examined the indirect effects of supervisor knowledge sharing and coworker knowledge sharing on task performance; (b) tested the indirect effect process of focal employee’s psychological safety in the knowledge sharing–performance; (c) examined the moderating role of employee’s regulatory focus (i.e., promotion focus and prevention focus) in the relationships between each sources of knowledge sharing and task performance, respectively. Data from a sample of 190 dyads were used to analyze the hypothesized models. Results show that there is positive indirect relationship between each sources of knowledge sharing and task performance via psychological safety. Also, our findings show the moderating effect of self regulatory focus. The relationship between supervisor knowledge sharing and psychological safety is strengthened when the focal employee’s promotion focus is high, whereas the relationship between coworker knowledge sharing and psychological safety is enhanced when prevention focus is low. Implications for research and practice are discussed.