Self-sacrificial Leadership and Knowledge Sharing: The Mediating Effect of Role Model Influence and the Moderating Effect of Overall Justice
Authors:   The Korean Association Of Personnel Administration, Yang Jong Ho , Oh Dongjin , Son Seung Yeon 
Published: March 2023

The organization has been striving to secure the capabilities of members with discriminatory and competitive advantages to survive fierce competition while adapting to the rapidly changing environment. Among these factors of competitive advantage, knowledge is considered a strategic resource for the survival of the organization. As the creation of new knowledge by organizational members and efficient management have emerged as the top priority for the prosperity and sustainability of the organization, studies have been conducted on knowledge sharing and information related to task performance among members. Through previous studies, it was found that the role of the leader in knowledge sharing of members had a considerable influence, but it had several limitations, so it was intended to supplement this through this study. First, it was confirmed that Self-sacrificial leadership presented as one of the leadership that positively affects members' attitudes or behaviors from the perspective of discretionary and self-sacrificial behavior without formal compensation or recognition, even though members' knowledge sharing is positive behavior for peers and organizations. Second, members examined the mediating effect between self-sacrificial leadership and knowledge sharing of role model influences on the premise that knowledge sharing behavior will increase through the process of imitating their desirable role model, leader's self-sacrificial attitude and behavior. Third, members who face environmental uncertainties in the organization pay more attention to the leader's behavior and respond more clearly to the leader's behavior, confirming the moderating effect of overall justice on the influence of the leader's self-sacrificial leadership. For an empirical study, data collected from 187 samples of supervisors-subordinates dyads among Navy officers and enlisted were used. As a result of hierarchical regression analysis and SPSS Macro, it was found that self-sacrificial leadership had a positive(+) relationship with knowledge sharing, and role model influence mediated the relationship between self-sacrificial leadership and knowledge sharing. In addition, the lower the overall fairness, the stronger the relationship between self-sacrificial leadership and role model influence, and the lower the overall fairness, the stronger the indirect effect between self-sacrificial leadership and role model influence. This study contributed to expanding the academic knowledge of the relationship between variables by identifying how self-sacrificial leadership affects the knowledge sharing and revealing the influence process of the role model and the moderating effect of overall justice. In addition, practical implications were provided to the organization by confirming the positive impact of self-sacrificial leadership that can promote knowledge sharing for the organization's prosperity and sustainability, and finally, the limitations of research and future research directions were discussed.