How Authoritarian Leadership and Renqing Orientation Improve Tacit Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

Following an indigenous approach and fairness theory, we develop a theoretical model to investigate when and how authoritarian leadership will improve tacit knowledge sharing (KS). Drawing on survey data from 309 Chinese employees, we examine whether authoritarian leadership will affect procedural fairness (PF) perception and interactional fairness (IF) perception, which in turn, will affect tacit KS; and examine whether leader renqing orientation (LRO) will moderate these mediation processes. Our data demonstrate that authoritarian leadership is negatively related to IF perception, which is positively related to tacit KS. Moreover, authoritarian leadership significantly increases tacit KS intention through PF perception only when LRO is high. Authoritarian leadership significantly decreases tacit KS intention through PF perception and IF perception only when LRO is low. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.