Purpose

Drawing on social exchange theory, this paper aims to clarify the influences of ethical leadership (EL) on knowledge-sharing (KS) behaviours of employees through the mediating roles of affective- and cognitive-based trust in leadership. This work further offers deeper insight into the moderating mechanism of distributive justice in the EL–KS relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to investigate the influential degree of EL, aspects of employee trust in leadership and distributive justice on employee behaviours towards tacit and explicit knowledge via data collected from 339 participants in 75 Vietnamese firms.

Findings

The empirical findings reveal that employee trust in leadership positively mediates the relationship between EL and KS behaviours. In particular, distributive justice significantly fosters the impacts of EL on tacit and explicit KS behaviours.

Practical implications

Managers and practitioners should strengthen EL practices to build and maintain employee trust in them for promoting KS behaviours. In addition, research highlights the necessity of establishing distributive justice in organisations to enhance the effect of EL on KS behaviours of employees.

Originality/value

This paper is unique in its attempts to advance the insights on the theory of leadership and knowledge management by investigating the different moderated-mediation mechanisms in the relationship between EL and specific aspects of KS behaviours.

中文翻译：

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通过道德领导和员工对领导的信任来刺激知识共享行为：分配正义的调节作用

目的

本文借鉴社会交换理论，旨在通过基于情感和认知的信任在领导中的中介作用，阐明道德领导（EL）对员工知识共享（KS）行为的影响。这项工作进一步深入了解了 EL-KS 关系中分配正义的调节机制。

设计/方法/方法

结构方程模型 (SEM) 用于通过从 75 家越南公司的 339 名参与者收集的数据来研究 EL 的影响程度、员工对领导的信任和分配正义对员工对隐性和显性知识行为的影响。

发现

实证结果表明，员工对领导的信任正向中介 EL 和 KS 行为之间的关系。特别是，分配正义显着促进了 EL 对隐性和显性 KS 行为的影响。

实际影响

管理人员和从业人员应加强 EL 实践，以建立和维护员工对他们的信任，从而促进 KS 行为。此外，研究强调了在组织中建立分配正义以增强 EL 对员工 KS 行为的影响的必要性。

原创性/价值

本文的独特之处在于它试图通过研究 EL 与 KS 行为的特定方面之间的关系中不同的调节中介机制来推进对领导力和知识管理理论的见解。