Ethical Leadership and Knowledge Hiding: A Moderated Mediation Model of Relational Social Capital, and Instrumental Thinking

Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullah; Huang Dechun; Moazzam Ali; Muhammad Usman

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02403

Ethical Leadership and Knowledge Hiding: A Moderated Mediation Model of Relational Social Capital, and Instrumental Thinking

Front Psychol. 2019 Oct 25:10:2403. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02403. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullah^{1

2}, Huang Dechun¹, Moazzam Ali³, Muhammad Usman²

Affiliations

¹ Business School of Hohai University, Hohai University, Nanjing, China.
² Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, Lahore, Pakistan.
³ Department of Management Sciences, University of Okara, Okara, Pakistan.

Abstract

The present study examined the direct and indirect (via relational social capital) relationships between supervisors' ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. It also tested the moderating role of instrumental thinking in the relationship between supervisors' ethical leadership and knowledge hiding and the relationship between supervisors' ethical leadership and relational social capital. Data were collected from 245 employees in different firms spanning different manufacturing and service sectors. The results showed that supervisors' ethical leadership was negatively related to knowledge hiding, both directly and via relational social capital. The results revealed that instrumental thinking moderated the positive relationship between supervisors' ethical leadership and relational social capital, such that the relationship was weak when instrumental thinking was high. The results also showed that instrumental thinking moderated both direct and indirect relationships between supervisors' ethical leadership and knowledge hiding, such that the relationships were weak when instrumental thinking was high. The study carries important practical implications for managers concerned about the destructive consequences of knowledge hiding.

Keywords: ethical leadership; instrumental thinking; knowledge hiding; moderated mediation; relational social capital.