Abstract
This study examined (1) the influence of ethical leadership on knowledge sharing, (2) the mediating role of psychological ownership, and (3) the moderating effect of professional commitment between ethical leadership (EL) and knowledge sharing (KS). Data were collected from 307 public listed Pakistani companies’ employees. Statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS Version 25 and AMOS version 22. The findings indicate a positive relationship between EL and KS behavior. Additionally, the impact of EL on KS was partially mediated by psychological ownership. Furthermore, professional commitment buffers the link between EL and KS. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of leadership by confirming the role of ethics. The results show that ethical leaders develop employee attitudes (i.e., psychological ownership and professional commitment) that contribute to employee KS behavior. Ethical leaders create and encourage a learning culture to enhance organizational performance. This study adds to the little data on the positive impact of EL on listed company’s employees and addresses the gaps in previous studies on the role of EL in changing environments. In addition, professional commitment as a moderator has not been previously investigated with ethical leadership antecedents.
Highlights
Leaders are credited with helping their organizations in getting an edge in the marketplace by managing their finances and teaching ethical values to the employees (Koay and Lim, 2021; Yasin, 2021)
We looked at psychological ownership in order to better understand the role of psychological states that emerged during the social learning process (Wright and Cropanzano, 1998) and argued that it is likely to enhance the connection between ethical leadership (EL) and knowledge sharing (KS) behavior
We found that EL was linked to employees’ willingness to share their knowledge, which is consistent with social learning theory (Bandura, 1979; Bandura and Hall, 2018)
Summary
Leaders are credited with helping their organizations in getting an edge in the marketplace by managing their finances and teaching ethical values to the employees (Koay and Lim, 2021; Yasin, 2021). When ethical leaders exemplify the values and standards of their respective organizations by behaving in line with these values and standards, they demonstrate their values and norms (such as trustworthiness, kindness, and concern for the needs of others; Banks et al, 2021) Based on these considerations, EL encourages employee KS by eliminating organizational obstacles, cultivating trustworthy workplace connections, and fostering workers’ expectations of fair compensation for their contributions and resource sharing (Castellani et al, 2021). When ethical leaders place their followers’ interests first and listen to their concerns, they experience a feeling of belonging in the workplace, which is a key component of psychological ownership that encourages them to share their knowledge (Men et al, 2020). Hypothesis 3: Professional commitment positively and significantly strengthens the relationship between EL and KS, such that the relationship is stronger when professional commitment is high
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