Unraveling the Effects of Ethical Leadership on Knowledge Sharing: The Mediating Roles of Subjective Well-Being and Social Media in the Hotel Industry

Misbah Hayat Bhatti, Umair Akram, Muhammad Hasnat Bhatti, Hassan Rasool and Xin Su
Additional contact information
Misbah Hayat Bhatti: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Umair Akram: Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Muhammad Hasnat Bhatti: School of Economics and Management, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116200, China
Xin Su: School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication, Beijing 100876, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-20

Abstract: Given the pivotal function of ethical leadership (EL) in the hospitality industry, this study explains how moral guidance can help to reduce mental stress. The modern complex and hectic working style of organizations demands ethical conduct, in order to sustain the positive behavior of employees for knowledge sharing (KS). For this reason, in this study, we restrict our awareness to the usage of social media (SM) for social identity and aspects of subjective well-being (SWB) for happiness intensity. The time-lag method is applied for data collection from 406 supervisors and subordinates of the hotel industry in Pakistan. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and bootstrapping are utilized to scan the data. The results of the current study demonstrate that ethical leadership provides motivational strength for knowledge sharing amongst employees. Moreover, the serial mediation effects of subjective well-being and social media boost knowledge sharing by the induction of ethical values. Our findings indicate that knowledge sharing is an important product of subjective well-being and social media. Therefore, we recommend that managers focus on ethical leadership values and employee well-being (e.g., life satisfaction), as well as highlight the individuality of employees to promote knowledge sharing. The presented research adds to the literature by establishing a new connection between ethical leadership and knowledge sharing by opening the black box of contextual (i.e., ethical leadership) and developmental (i.e., subjective well-being and social media) factors.

Keywords: ethical leadership; knowledge sharing; subjective well-being; social media; hospitality industry; perceived supervisor support; partial least squares method; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8333/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8333/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:20:p:8333-:d:425744

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().