Influence Of Employees’ Political Skill On Interpersonal Knowledge Transfer Performance-an Empirical Study

In the modern knowledge economy age, knowledge isundoubtedly one of the most important sources of power, and thepossession of knowledge signifies the possession of uniqueresources and recessive power. However, the knowledge stock ofeither an enterprise or an individual person is very limited. Only thestream of new knowledge obtained from a constant communicationfrom the outside world can foster self-development and self-improvement. Thus, successful knowledge transfer turns out to benot only an essential origin for acquiring knowledge but also theprerequisite for creating the new knowledge. In special, both formaland informal knowledge transfer among individual employees is ofgreat significance that cannot be ignored in the knowledge flowcross organizations and boundaries, in the enhancement of workefficiency for both individuals and organizations, and in promotingthe technological innovation for enterprises and organizations. Yetthe scarcity of resources in organizations usually results in thateach member of the organization might strive for sharing certainamount of resource and benefit, which further leads to theorganizations being filled up with political atmosphere and political behavior. And all that will certainly impact on the knowledgetransfer within organizations. For a better survival and developmentwithin organizations, everyone attempts to acquire certain amountof scarce organization resources. But not all the political behaviorwill succeed, the outcome of which rests with various levels ofindividual political skill. Individuals with high level of political skillare aware not only of various ways in catering the psychologicalneed of the opposite side but also a seemingly sincere means whichconceals the motive for self-service. By doing so, they can achievetheir aims through the influence upon other people’s behaviors.Since the political skill can not only effectively promote thesuccessful implement but also conceal the utilitarian andpurposefulness of political behaviors, which impels people toassociate with one another under an atmosphere of harmony,solidarity and mutual trust, then, can this political skill reduce theside-effect of political atmosphere on political behavior and promoteefficient knowledge transfer within organizations? The successfulresolution to this problem might shed light upon the knowledgemanagement activity of enterprises. Besides, due to the fact thatthe study on political skill both at home and abroad is still in thedevelopment stage, and researches specially focused on therelationship between political skill and knowledge transferperformance are relatively short, this thesis is also of greattheoretical significance.On the basis of the research motivation mentioned above, thepresent study aims to figure out whether the independent variablepolitical skill will impact upon the dependent variable knowledge transfer performance. And the introduction of three elements(opportunity, motive, ability) being the intervening variable is to seewhether it exerts the mediating function. The present paper adoptsthe methodology of empirical study, which collects the researchdata from 202 questionnaires and analyzes the data by running SPSS19.0. The results of present research are listed as follows:①Political skill of the employees positively and significantlyinfluence on the knowledge transfer performance among individuals.The higher level of employees’political technique comes with thebetter effects of knowledge transfer.②Among the four dimensions of political skill, interpersonalinfluence, networking ability and apparent sincerity positively andsignificantly influence knowledge inter-individual transfer, whilesocial astuteness didn’t exert a significant influence.③Political skill of employees has a positive and significant influenceupon opportunity of knowledge transfer, individuals with higher levelof political skill usually possess with wide personal network as wellas abundant means and opportunities of knowledge transfer.④Political skill of employees exert a positive and significantinfluence on the motivation of knowledge transfer. Individuals withhigher level of political skill are usually willing to actively sharetheir own work experience and knowledge with others and possessstronger motivation of knowledge transfer.⑤Political skill of employees positively and significantly influencethe ability of knowledge transfer. Individuals with higher level ofpolitical skill usually manifest better command and comprehension of knowledge. They can effectively spread and accept newknowledge, thus possess stronger skills in knowledge transfer.⑥The three elements of knowledge transfer (opportunity, motivationand ability) exert a positive and significant mediating function in theinfluence of political skill upon knowledge transfer performance.Individuals possess higher level of political skill usually have moreopportunities, stronger motivations and better effects of knowledgetransfer.