How leadership enhances employees' knowledge sharing: The intervening roles of relational and organizational identification

Abraham Carmeli, Leanne Atwater, Avi Levi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Knowledge exchange among employees is crucial to organizational effectiveness. Leadership can enhance or detract from employees' willingness to share knowledge. This study examines how leadership affects knowledge sharing in a knowledge-intensive work setting. It proposes and tests a model which posits that (1) transformational leadership affects the extent to which employees identify with their manager; (2) this relational identification, mediated by the quality of LMX (Leader-Member Exchange), leads to greater identification with the organization and its goals, which in turn results in greater knowledge sharing. The sample consisted of two hundred and three R&D employees engaged in advanced technological projects. Path analysis results indicated that there are both direct and indirect (through LMX) relationships between transformational leadership and relational identification: relational identification promotes organizational identification which, in turn, is positively related to knowledge sharing. These results highlight the importance of transformational leadership and LMX for promoting relational and organizational identification, thereby facilitating employee knowledge sharing.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)257-274
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Technology Transfer
Volume36
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2011

Keywords

  • Knowledge sharing
  • Leadership
  • Organizational identification
  • Relational identification

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Engineering
  • Accounting
  • Business and International Management

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