Organizational justice and knowledge sharing behavior. The role of psychological ownership and perceived organizational support

Pages748-773
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2017-0217
Date01 April 2019
Published date01 April 2019
AuthorZahid Hameed,Ikram Ullah Khan,Zaryab Sheikh,Tahir Islam,Muhammad Imran Rasheed,Rana Muhammad Naeem
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM
Organizational justice and
knowledge sharing behavior
The role of psychological ownership and
perceived organizational support
Zahid Hameed
Department of Management Sciences,
Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology,
Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan
Ikram Ullah Khan
Institute of Management Sciences, University of Science and Technology Bannu,
Bannu, Pakistan
Zaryab Sheikh
School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China and
Department of Management Sciences, Beaconhouse National University,
Lahore, Pakistan
Tahir Islam
School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China and
School of Management, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University,
Karachi, Pakistan
Muhammad Imran Rasheed
School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China,
Hefei, China and
Department of Management Science, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur,
Bahawalpur, Pakistan, and
Rana Muhammad Naeem
Department of Business Administration, Sukkur IBA University,
Sukkur, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose Knowledge sharing (KS) has been consistently acknowledged as a critical factor in the
organizational development and the betterment of employees. The purpose of this paper is to extend previous
empirical research on KS by testing psychological ownership as an underlying mechanism between the
relationship of organizational justice (OJ) and KS behavior in developing country context. The authors also
examine the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS) between psychological ownership and
KS behavior.
Design/methodology/approach Using a survey questionnaire, data from 348 employees of multinational
corporations in Pakistan were used to test the research hypotheses.
Findings The results of this rese arch reveal that dimens ions of OJ (procedural, distributive and
interactional justic e) positively influence psycholog ical ownership. In addition, psych ological ownership is
found as an underlying p sychological mechanis m between the relations hip of OJ and KS behavior. The
results also indicat e that a higher level of POS strengthens the relat ionship between psyc hological
ownership and KS behavi or.
Practical implications Organizations can enhance employeessense of psychological ownership by
providing them fairness in procedures and resources. Moreover, management can create a perception of
equality among the employees which subsequently helps employees engage in sharing their valuable
knowledge with their team members and other workers in the organization.
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 3, 2019
pp. 748-773
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-07-2017-0217
Received 25 July 2017
Revised 31 January 2018
30 June 2018
Accepted 15 October 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
748
PR
48,3
Originality/value This research suggests that psychological ownership and POS are important factors
which influence the relationship between OJ and KS behavior and it empirically tests this model in a
developing country context.
Keywords Quantitative, Psychological ownership, Organizational justice,
Perceived organizational support, Knowledge sharing behaviour
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Knowledge sharing (KS) is considered as one of the foremost features in dealing with
intellectual capital and acquires a competitive advantage for both private and government
organizations in the prevailing cutthroat competition (Argote and Ingram, 2000; Li et al., 2015;
Liu and Liu, 2011; Spender and Mahoney, 2000). KS is s ignificant for innovation, as evolution
of ideas or concepts rely on effective KS behavior among workers in organizations and that
helps the smooth development of new products, services and processes (Nonaka et al., 2006).
There are gapsin the literature about the implementation ofknowledge management andthe
mechanisms that turn knowledge into a competitive advantage. Previous research has
relatively overweighed the managerial systems, cultures and organizational structures which
contribute to knowledge management (Cohen, 1998; Hinds et al., 2001). According to Collins
and Smith (2006), organizational-level research has emphasized on the practices of human
resourcemanagement, organizational structure, cultureand learning, all of whichcan boost the
capabilityof knowledge management.Research at team level has discussed innovativeness of
knowledge created, the speed of knowledge creation, and the speed of knowledge transfer
among teams, all of which have an impact on knowledge management efforts (Gibson et al.,
2007). At the individual level, most of the researc h has emphasized on organizational justice
(OJ) and trust, which have influence on KS (C.-P . Lin, 2007; H.-F. Lin, 2007). Among the
practicesof knowledge management,KS is the most significant factoras the higher level of KS
within the firm represents the greater level of organizational effectiveness (Yang, 2004).
Research has examined personality, trust (Usoro et al., 2007) and affective commitment
(Li et al., 2015) as the antecedents of KS behavior. However, relatively little research h as
examined theassociation between justice perceptions and KS behaviorwith a particular focus
to explore the underlying mechanism between this relationship. OJ is considered as one of the
factorsthat might provoke a feelingof ownership onthe part of individuals.These feelings can
further lead to the altruistic spirit (Brown et al., 2014), and contribute toward organizational
effectiveness through practices such as KS (Wang an d Noe, 2010).
Van den Hooff and De Ridder (2004, p. 119) defined KS as a process where individuals
mutually exchange their implicit and explicit knowledge to create new knowledge.KS is
considered to be a process where exchange and creation of knowledge among the employees
take place. Xinyan and Xin (2006) considered KS as an important source of knowledge creation
at the workplace. Organizations are constantly trying to develop tools and systems that can
overcome organizational and individual obstructions, permitting employees to share knowledge
effectively to enhance innovative performance (Schwaer et al.,2012).KScanbefacilitatedby
either knowledge donating or knowledge collecting (Van den Hooff and De Ridder, 2004). In KS,
the intellectual capital is transferred from employee to employee, thus it benefits the whole
organization. Sharing knowledge is an intentional process that not only boosts an individuals
understanding but also helps to create an archive of accessible knowledge for others.
The moderndevelopments in technologies have increasingly hoistedthe value of intangible
assets (such as knowledge, skills and abilities of the employees) as compared to tangible assets
(Geisler and Wickramasinghe, 2015) and therefore multinational corporations emphasize on
impalpable assets (e.g. new ideas, new information and new knowledge) to produce a sequence
of innovations and, thereby contribute to the organizational performance (Teece, 2014). In fact,
the impalpable assets within the organizational members impel the firms that they should
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behavior

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