Testing the Mechanisms by Which Supervisor Incivility Affects Subordinates’ Knowledge Sharing: The Mediating Role of Job Anxiety and Interactional Justice

초록

Knowledge is increasingly becoming a key resource that provides organizations with sustainable competitive advantage. When organizational members share knowledge, they can transform their personal knowledge into organizational knowledge, thereby enhancing the organization’s overall performance. However, supervisor incivility, which negatively impacts knowledge sharing, not only causes employees to feel negative emotions, but also severs the emotional connection between supervisors and subordinates, thereby affecting knowledge sharing among employees. Knowledge sharing is inherently a matter of personal autonomy, and exposure to supervisor incivility leads employees to be reluctant or even resistant to knowledge sharing. Research exploring how negative supervisor behaviors affect knowledge sharing in the workplace is crucial, particularly in an organizational context. This study aims to fill this gap and expand the research area. This study aims to investigate whether supervisor incivility reduces subordinates’ knowledge sharing and to verify the mediating effect of job anxiety and interactional justice in this process. To test the hypotheses based on the research model, data were collected from 247 employees of a Chinese small and medium-sized enterprise. The results revealed that supervisor incivility negatively impacts subordinates’ knowledge sharing, and that job anxiety and interactional justice mediate this effect. Overall, this study contributed to expanding the scope of research on knowledge sharing and providing a theoretical foundation.

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