Research On The Influence Mechanism Of The Superior-subordinate Power Distance Orientation On Vertical Two-way Knowledge Sharing

Knowledge sharing has always been regarded as the core content of organizational knowledge management,and has been widely concerned by academia and enterprises for a long time.However,due to the late start,most of the relevant research and practice of Chinese local knowledge sharing is to borrow and imitate Western theoretical experience.But the results show that the theoretical achievements in the context of Western culture are not applicable in the context of Chinese native culture.Therefore,the necessity of explaining individual knowledge sharing from the perspective of "native culture" cannot be avoided.Power distance orientation,as one of the typical cultural value factors in China,can provide an explanation for the interaction of knowledge sharing in organizations from the perspective of cognitive differences in power.Moreover,compared with the research on the horizontal knowledge sharing between employees,the bottom-up knowledge sharing of employees and the top-down knowledge sharing of leaders are important research topic that has been long neglected by academic fields so far.This article focuses on the vertical two-way knowledge sharing within the organization.Through the combination of theoretical analysis and empirical testing to reveal the mechanism of the influence of individual power distance orientation on the two-way interaction of vertical knowledge sharing.This article mainly includes the following three sub-studies:Study 1 examines the mechanism of leader's power distance orientation and leader's knowledge sharing intention.The study takes leader-member exchange relationship,leader's psychological security and leader's sense of self-worth as the mediation variables,and uses mature theoretical tools to explain the relationship between variables,and then uses statistical analysis software for data testing.The results show that:(1)leader's power distance orientation significantly negatively affects leader's top-down knowledge sharing intention;(2)leader-member exchange relationship and leader's sense of self-worth play a negative mediation role between leader's power distance orientation and leader's top-down knowledge sharing intention;(3)leader's psychological security plays a positive mediation role between leader's power distance orientation and leader's top-down knowledge sharing intention,which indicates there is a “suppressing effect”.Study 2 examines the mechanism of employee's power distance orientation and employee's bottom-up knowledge sharing intention.The study takes leader-member exchange relationship,employee's psychological security and employee's sense of self-worth as the mediation variables,and uses mature theoretical tools to explain the relationship between variables,and then uses statistical analysis software for data testing.The results show that:(1)employee's power distance orientation will significantly negatively affect employee's bottom-up knowledge sharing intention;(2)leader-member exchange relationship,employee's psychological security and employee's sense of self-worth will play an mediation role between employee's power distance orientation and employee's bottom-up knowledge sharing intention.Study 3 examines the cross-level effect mechanism of the “leader-employee” power distance orientation on employee's bottom-up knowledge sharing intention from the perspective of dual subjects.The research carried out theoretical model analysis based on the “trickle-down theory”,and then conducted data verification with the help of various statistical analysis software.The results show that:(1)leader's power distance orientation will negatively affect employee's bottom-up knowledge sharing intention;(2)leader's power distance orientation will also indirectly affect employee's bottom-up knowledge sharing intention by affecting employee's power distance orientation.The main theoretical contributions of this article are: First,it analyzes and examines the mechanism of vertical knowledge sharing from a “leader-employee” perspective;Second,this paper verifies the main effect of individual power distance orientation on knowledge sharing,and introduces an mediation mechanism to reveal the internal interaction between the two variables;Third,it analyzes and examines the “trickle-down” effect of the “others”(leader)power distance orientation on employee's power distance orientation and employee's bottom-up knowledge sharing intention.This makes up for the deficiencies of existing research to a certain extent.Based on the research conclusions,this article proposes corresponding practical management countermeasures for reference: First,companies should pay attention to the negative impact of the power distance orientation of leaders and employees in the organization or team,and incorporate the power distance orientation level into the employee training and talent selection evaluation system.At the same time,we can consciously weaken the individual power distance orientation by creating a fair and just organizational atmosphere and an equal and friendly interpersonal environment;Second,companies should pay attention to team building,strive to cultivate harmonious,friendly,intimate,and trustful emotional connections,and at the same time pay attention to the internal psychological state and value needs of individuals to create a atmosphere that is conducive to knowledge sharing;Third,it reminds enterprises to realize that the level of individual psychological security is affected by the matching of their power distance orientation and actual status role,and it is recommended to adopt differentiated management methods for leaders and employees with different power distance orientation levels.