Knowledge-sharing in R&D departments: a social power and social exchange theory perspective

Abstract

Sharing knowledge in an R&D team is one of the crucial ways of sustaining a competitive advantage. According to the social power theory, managers have five types of power to influence subordinates' behavior (French and Raven 1959 French, J. and Raven, B.H. 1959. The Bases of Social Power. Studies in Social Power, Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research. [Google Scholar]). This study examines managers' social power influencing R&D employees' knowledge-sharing behavior. The empirical model formed two nested models, one to assess the direct effect of managers' social power on employees' knowledge-sharing behavior, and the other to examine the indirect effect of using the mediated variable of trust. Data gathered from 105 R&D employees were employed to examine the relationship. The results indicate that manager's reward power and expert power have direct effects, while reference power and expert power have indirect effects.