Seung-hyun Han

Transformational leadership and knowledge sharing: Mediating roles of employee’s empowerment, commitment, and citizenship behaviors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the fundamental process through which transformational leaders play a significant role in employees’ knowledge sharing by investigating mediating roles of individual affects, particularly psychological empowerment, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modeling, including confirmatory factor and path analysis, is conducted to test proposed hypothesis. Findings – The results of this study indicate significant direct effects of transformational leadership on psychological empowerment, organizational commitment and OCB. Moreover, transformational leadership also shows an indirect effect on employees’ OCB, which, in turn, is identified as the primary factor that influences knowledge sharing. However, organizational commitment does not provide a significant influence on knowledge sharing. These findings highlight the importance of mediating roles, particularly OCB, ...

The mediating effect of organizational commitment and employee empowerment: how transformational leadership impacts employee knowledge sharing intention

This study examined the underlying process through which transformational leaders provide an influence on employees’ knowledge sharing intention by concentrating on mediating roles of psychological empowerment and employees’ commitment to organizations. The direct and indirect impacts of transformational leadership on knowledge sharing were explored. In order to test the proposed hypotheses, structural equation modelling analysis was conducted with a sample of 426 full-time employees in South Korea. The results of this study showed a significant direct effect of transformational leadership on psychological empowerment and organizational commitment, which in turn had a significant influence on employees’ knowledge sharing intention. Transformational leadership had only an indirect effect on knowledge sharing intention among employees. These results bring out the importance of mediating roles of employee’s attitudes, especially organizational commitment, for promoting knowledge sharing intention among employees.

Conceptual Review of Underrepresentation of Women in Senior Leadership Positions From a Perspective of Gendered Social Status in the Workplace: Implication for HRD Research and Practice

An increasing number of studies report more similarities than differences in leadership styles between women and men. However, the evident vertical gender segregation at top management levels still remains a common phenomenon for various organizations. This consistent disparity needs to be addressed by identifying the underlying mechanism embedded in organizational structures that portrays women as less suitable for senior leadership positions than their male counterparts, although evidence suggests that there is no substantial gender difference in leadership styles or behaviors. This conceptual review articulates the deeply rooted gendered social status of organizations by delineating conceptual constructs and relationships regarding women’s delayed advancement to senior leadership positions. The resulting model further implies that the gendered social status associated with women could compromise the effectiveness of human resources development (HRD) interventions initially developed to help women. This understanding prompts reexamination of existing HRD interventions to support women’s career advancement to senior leadership positions in organizations.

Exploring the relationship between students’ learning styles and learning outcome in engineering laboratory education

Abstract It is a commonly accepted notion that people take different approaches in learning. Although attention has been given to learning styles as one of the determinants of learning performance, there is are limitations to the inferential approach to understanding the impact of learning styles on learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of learning preference on student learning outcome in engineering labs. The findings of this paper contribute to the existing literature in two ways. This study describes the typology of participants’ learning styles, confirming some results from similar research. Additionally, it examines the impact of learning styles, using the Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic (VARK) inventory as indicators of students’ learning outcomes, and how the findings confirm or contradict prior research results in important ways. Further, this study includes demographic information to investigate the influence on learning outcome. Discussions of the results from both analyses will contribute to an academic understanding of the critical success factors of the learning process and their practical application in laboratory learning.

The antecedents and dimensionality of knowledge-sharing intention: An empirical study of R&D engineers in a high-performing IT company

Purpose This paper aims to focus on the relationships between situational/dispositional variables and an individual’s intention to knowledge sharing, and has theoretical implications for researchers in human resource development and management, as well as implications for practicing managers in organizations. First, this study examines whether an integrative model of knowledge sharing reveals an impact of various antecedents on sharing of knowledge between individuals, which has been rarely explored in a single study. In particular, this study is interested in examining whether the two dimensions improve individual sharing of explicit and tacit knowledge, respectively. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative survey design approach is used as the research method for data collection. Initially, a pilot study is conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the measures. A 120-item questionnaire is used to measure personality traits, organizational climate and knowledge-sharing intention. The main study is conducted at the Korean IT companies, which have knowledge management system and actively share knowledge between R&D engineers. Findings The results of regression analyses indicate that conscientiousness, openness and extroversion of dispositional variables are positively related to an individual’s intention to share knowledge. Of situational variables, organizational support and identity are positively related to knowledge sharing, and reward is negatively associated with knowledge-sharing intention. Theoretical and practical implications for future research are discussed. Originality/value Scholars focused with increasing emphasis over the past 20 years on an organization’s ability to facilitate, utilize and share knowledge as critical components of organizational success. Several scholarly attempts tried to explain the antecedents of knowledge sharing. Despite an increasing demand for a coherent and integrated approach to knowledge sharing, empirical efforts remain largely absent with regard to how knowledge transfer and knowledge-sharing practices among individuals are affected by dispositional and situational variables. Also, individual intention to share knowledge was primarily measured as a unidimensional concept. This is a surprising oversight, given that tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge are critical. Indeed, these may be collectivized successfully for the firm’s driver. To address this gap in our understanding of the personal dynamics involved in knowledge-sharing practices, this study seeks to investigate whether dispositional and situational variables lead to changes in individual’s intention to share tacit and explicit knowledge.