Knowledge-sharing in R&D departments: a social power and social exchange theory perspective

Abstract

Sharing knowledge in an R&D team is one of the crucial ways of sustaining a competitive advantage. According to the social power theory, managers have five types of power to influence subordinates' behavior (French and Raven 1959). This study examines managers' social power influencing R&D employees' knowledge-sharing behavior. The empirical model formed two nested models, one to assess the direct effect of managers' social power on employees' knowledge-sharing behavior, and the other to examine the indirect effect of using the mediated variable of trust. Data gathered from 105 R&D employees were employed to examine the relationship. The results indicate that manager's reward power and expert power have direct effects, while reference power and expert power have indirect effects.