The importance of accountability for knowledge sharing: The role of knowledge-oriented leadership

Abstract

This study investigates the interaction of artifacts of accountability, perceived accountability, and knowledge sharing. We further examine the moderation of knowledge-oriented leadership in the relationship between perceived accountability and knowledge sharing. Data were collected from 345 sales employees from pharmaceutical organizations in Pakistan, and we used Smart PLS-SEM to test the model and the proposed hypotheses. The results suggest that identifiability, expectation evaluation, awareness of monitoring, and social presence awareness are positively related to perceived accountability, which leads to knowledge sharing. However, the results do not support the positive moderation of knowledge-oriented leadership in the relationship between perceived accountability and knowledge sharing; in fact, they suggest a negative moderation. This study contributes to accountability theory and contextual leadership theory by examining the interaction of contextual leadership and accountability in the context of knowledge sharing as a desired outcome. We argue that contextual leadership vague the existence of perceived accountability, and this is an important theoretical contribution that will help and guide scholars to conduct future research in order to take the knowledge level to an upper level. Furthermore, it is also useful for the organizational manager that how they can encourage knowledge sharing among employees using the information systems and the accountability concepts.