The Effect of Knowledge Sharing Behavior of Supervisor on Employees’ Fear of Losing Value Regarding Knowledge Sharing: The Mediating Role of Organizational Support

Abstract

Knowledge sharing has a strategic importance in organizations, therefore several solutions and suggestions are proposed to overcome the barriers regarding knowledge sharing and to enable the individual’s knowledge to become the knowledge of the organization. We argue that the most important barrier to knowledge sharing is the fear of losing power and uniqueness that may occur after knowledge sharing, accordingly in this study we examine the effect of knowledge sharing behavior of supervisor and mediating role of organizational support. We suggest that supervisor will act as a role model for employees especially to understand the organizational culture and code of conducts and therefore knowledge sharing of supervisor will decrease employees’ fear of losing value. 217 employees participated in our study and according to analysis knowledge sharing behavior of supervisor decreases employees’ fear regarding knowledge sharing and also the mediating role of organizational support is revealed.