The impact of task-oriented leadership to subordinates' knowledge creation behavior – based on organismic integration theory

Fangfei Ma, Hongchao Zhao and Chunbo Wu

International Journal of Manpower, 2022, vol. 44, issue 2, 283-298

Abstract: Purpose - Competitiveness of pharmaceutical companies hugely depends on new knowledge because of ever-changing technologies and forefront of knowledge. Leadership styles appear to influence knowledge management behavior, but there has been little empirical research on employees' knowledge creation behavior as an outcome of leadership. The study examines how task-oriented leadership affects subordinates' knowledge creation behavior. Based on organismic integration theory (OIT), the study proposes that perception of competitive climate and achievement motivation can conduct as mediators. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from 877 full-time working employees in five pharmaceutical companies in China. Participants answered demographic questions and completed the task-oriented leadership, perception of competitive climate, achievement motivation, as well as knowledge creation behavior scale. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings - The results review that task-oriented leadership will significantly promote subordinates' knowledge creation behavior. Perception of competitive climate and achievement motivation play mediator roles between task-oriented leadership and subordinates knowledge creation behavior. Perception of competitive climate and achievement motivation have a serial mediating effect between task-oriented leadership and subordinates knowledge creation behavior. Practical implications - By adopting a task-oriented leadership style through training and development, leaders may stimulate employees more knowledge creation behaviors by transmitting the organization's vision, clarifying their work tasks and setting relatively high-performance standards. Then, organizations should establish a competition mechanism to promote competition among employees, while also preventing malicious competition. Finally, organizations should arouse employees' achievement motivation to stimulate their internal pursuit of success and needs. Originality/value - Because of the improvement of information technology and the acceleration of knowledge dissemination, the need for new knowledge is becoming more and more urgent in organizations. Knowledge, as a resource that needs to be managed in an organizational environment, has regained researchers' attention. However, a flourishing number of studies explain the organizational knowledge management from the macro level, there is a need to explore how leaders influence their subordinates to create knowledge. From the perspective of extrinsic motivation internalization, this study’s findings contribute to the literature on task-oriented leadership and knowledge creation behavior and expand our understanding of why task-oriented leadership promotes subordinates' knowledge creation behavior.

Keywords: Task-oriented leadership; Knowledge creation behavior; Perception of competitive climate; Achievement motivation; Organismic integration theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ijmpps:ijm-04-2021-0230

DOI: 10.1108/IJM-04-2021-0230

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Manpower is currently edited by Professor Adrian Ziderman

More articles in International Journal of Manpower from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().