http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/713 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:24:42 GMT 2013-04-30T15:24:42Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6494 Title: An integrative management model of knowledge sharing : case studies of knowledge-based SMEs in Hong Kong Authors: Law, Kuok Kei ( 羅國基) Abstract: This dissertation provides an answer to the long-lasting question of "how to enhance knowledge sharing within organizations". As knowledge has become the major, if not only, production factor in the modern knowledge economy, the sharing and application of it throughout the organization is critical to the development of competitive advantage. However, the sharing of knowledge among organizational members is often 'sticky'. This stickiness is mainly caused by people's reluctance to disclose and share what they know. The notion of knowledge sharing dilemma is an important theoretical underpinning to understand people's reluctance. In such a dilemma situation, on the one hand, people are concerned with the potential costs and losses of knowledge sharing, but on the other hand, people need to share their knowledge in order to reveal their intellectual values and obtain rewards. Therefore, from the management's point of view, the critical issue to foster knowledge sharing is to lead the workers out of the knowledge sharing dilemma. Managerial interventions/governance are needed to achieve such directing effort. However, the extant literature has largely undermined this management perspective. Past studies have mostly focused on identifying the antecedents to knowledge sharing, that is, concentrating on the examination of the 'what' aspect. There is no concrete theoretical model explaining 'how' to foster knowledge sharing from the managerial perspective. Another major problem in the current literature is that researchers tend to emphasize the role of motivation in enhancing knowledge sharing behaviors but downplay the role of managerial controls, assuming that control mechanisms are contradictory to the discretional nature of knowledge sharing. However, extensive reviews of the underlying nature of the motivation and control mechanisms as well as the empirical evidences gathered from case studies here suggested that both types of mechanisms are actually complimenting the effects of one another. The simultaneous implementation of these two mechanisms indeed creates a synergy for fostering knowledge sharing behaviors of workers. The empirical context of the study involves six knowledge-intensive SMEs in Hong Kong. The six SMEs compose the case study observations that were based upon to develop an integrative management model for fostering knowledge sharing. The types of managerial practices employed in the SMEs, the rationales behind those managerial practices, as well as their effectiveness are analyzed. Overall, evidences from the case studies suggest that three types of managerial interventions are needed to foster knowledge sharing - initiating interventions, reinforcing interventions, aligning interventions. The integrative management model identifies the roles of the three types of managerial interventions in fostering knowledge sharing. It describes how these managerial interventions create extrinsic drives to the workers to engage in knowledge sharing and how the knowledge sharing behavior initially shaped by extrinsic drives will gradually be internalized as an intrinsic value of the workers. The integrative management model advances the extant literature in three ways. First, it offers concrete theoretical and practical guidance to both researchers and managers on how to embed knowledge sharing behaviors within KIFs. Second, it bridges the different theoretical viewpoints toward the managing of knowledge and knowledge sharing, namely the motivation perspective and control perspective. Third, it describes the processes how the fostering effect is achieved from the intended managerial efforts. Moreover, the model offers implications for various research opportunities. In conclusion, this dissertation builds a concrete theoretical foundation for the investigation of enhancing knowledge sharing and makes a theoretical contribution to the extant literature. Notes: CityU Call Number: HD30.2 .L386 2011; viii, 190 leaves 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-185) Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6494 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6493 Title: Self-regulatory focus of leaders and follower creativity and performance : the enhancement effect of regulatory fit Authors: Kwok, Man Lung ( 郭文龍) Abstract: This study examined the direct relationship between self-regulatory focus of leaders and follower creativity and performance with the mediating effects of leadership behaviors and moderating effect of follower self-regulatory focus on the relationship between leadership and follower creativity and performance (i.e., the regulatory fit hypotheses). Using path analysis and bootstrapping, data from 166 dyads from leaders and followers were collected from various companies. It was found that a leader with promotion focus was positively related to follower creativity but not performance, and related to transformational leadership and transactional leadership. Transactional leadership was found to relate to follower creativity weakly. However, neither the mediating effects of leadership behaviors between the self-regulatory focus of leaders and follower creativity and performance nor the moderating effects of follower self-regulatory focus on leadership behaviors and follower creativity and performance were supported. Additional analyses found that the regulatory nonfit reduced the follower creativity. Managerial implications based on the results were suggested to promote the application of self-regulatory focus of leaders and followers in the work setting. Notes: CityU Call Number: HD57.7 .K869 2011; iii, 91 leaves : ill. 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-87) Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6493 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6492 Title: Structuring versus autocraticness : exploring a comprehensive model of authoritarian leadership Authors: Chen, Tingting ( 陳婷婷) Abstract: This dissertation seeks to develop a comprehensive model of authoritarian leadership. Specifically, this paper differentiates two types of authoritarian leadership, namely, structuring and autocratic leadership. This model is a major extension of the previous authoritarian leadership framework, and in a broader sense, the controlling leadership literature in that it challenges the prevailing view that authoritarian leadership only has negative effects. The current model proposes that authoritarian leadership, a typical controlling leadership style, includes both positive and negative elements. Autocratic leadership refers to the leadership behaviors characterized by domination over subordinates and the demand of unquestionable obedience, and it is expected to have negative effects on subordinate work outcomes. On the other hand, structuring leadership, a new dimension of authoritarianism proposed in the current model, involves leadership practices of demanding and structuring subordinates' efforts in a task-oriented and rational manner. I propose that this style is conducive to subordinates' high performance and continuous improvement. Two independent studies were employed to examine this two-dimensional authoritarian leadership model. The first study sought to establish a theoretical framework of differentiating the two types of authoritarian leadership. I propose that the difference in subordinate attributions of leader intentionality - whether it has a subordinate-orientation or a self-serving-orientation - accounts for the mechanisms that structuring and autocratic leadership have the opposite effects on subordinate outcomes. A questionnaire survey involving 210 employees and 80 of their immediate leaders supported the hypotheses. Structuring leadership was positively related to subordinate attributions of leader intentionality with a subordinate-orientation, which in turn, was positively related to employee work outcomes (job performance, helping leader, and helping coworkers). On the other hand, autocratic leadership was positively related subordinate attributions of leader intentionality with a self-serving-orientation, which in turn, was negatively related to employee work outcomes. In addition, it was found that achievement value and need for achievement strengthened the positive effects of structuring leadership on subordinate attributions of leader intentionality with a subordinate-orientation, whereas conservation value and traditionality attenuated the positive effects of autocratic leadership on subordinate attributions of leader intentionality with a self-serving-orientation. The second study explored whether the mediating mechanisms differed across the two types of authoritarian leadership and transformational leadership with regard to their influence on employee work outcomes, as well as examined the boundary conditions of the positive effects of structuring leadership. Two mediating variables, trust in leader and role clarity, were examined. A questionnaire survey was conducted involving 242 employees and 53 of their immediate leaders. Statistical results revealed that when the control variables, transformational leadership, structuring and autocratic leadership were all included in hierarchical linear models, transformational leadership was positively related to trust in leader, yet structuring leadership manifested no significant relationship with trust in leader, revealing that compared with structuring leadership, transformational leadership was a stronger predictor of trust in leader. On the other hand, structuring leadership was positively related to role clarity, yet transformational leadership displayed no significant relationship with role clarity, revealing that compared with transformational leadership, structuring leadership was a stronger predictor of role clarity. Finally, autocratic leadership presented a negative relation to trust in leader and no significant relationship with role clarity. The positive indirect effects of transformational leadership on employee task performance and extra effort to leader via trust in leader, the positive indirect effects of structuring leadership on employee task performance via role clarity, and the negative indirect effects of autocratic leadership on employee task performance and extra effort to leader via trust in leader were all supported. Trait conscientiousness was found to be a moderator for the relationship between structuring leadership and trust in leader. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations are discussed. Notes: CityU Call Number: HD57.7 .C45 2011; viii, 233 leaves 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 205-224) Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6492 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6120 Title: Exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation in industrial clusters : moderating effects of different network ties Authors: Zhang, Wen (張雯) Abstract: The phenomenon of firms co-locating to cluster within a region has been observed for a number of years. Clusters significantly influence the competitiveness and innovativeness of regional economies. Firms need to consider both location-related and network-based strategies because geographical proximity and networks are intertwined and important to organizations' innovation and performance. This study empirically examines the main effects of industrial cluster on firms' innovation, as well as the moderating effects of a firm's network ties in the relationship between its location choice and different types of innovation. Theories of economic geography and network suggest that firms benefit from spatial concentration or organizational relationships. This study developed hypotheses regarding the effects of location-specific and network-centered strategy on firms' innovation, aiming to measure the unexplored issue of actual relationships between geographical proximity and innovation, and disentangle the effect of networks from cluster mechanisms. To test the hypotheses, data were collected from a number of industrial clusters and non-clusters located in China. The results support the hypotheses that clusters indeed matter and that networks play important moderating effects on the relationship between cluster and innovation. The effect of spatial proximity on firm innovation is best exploited together with a firm's institutional (formal) or managerial (informal/social) connections. Institutional and managerial network ties exert distinct effects on different types of innovation for regionally clustered firms. In short, although being a member of an industrial cluster facilitates firms' exploitative innovation, it does not improve their exploratory innovation. The moderating effects of distinct network ties on the relationship between clustering and innovation are different. For example, institutional networks' moderating effects on the relationship between cluster and exploitative and exploratory innovation are negative. Managerial networks strengthen the positive relationship between cluster and exploitative innovation. However, managerial networks weaken the relationship between industrial cluster and exploratory innovation. In summary, proximity and institutional networks offer partially exclusionary advantages for innovation, whereas proximity and managerial networks present contingencies for exploitative and exploratory innovation. Notes: CityU Call Number: HC79.D5 Z42 2009; vii, 152 leaves : ill. 30 cm.; Thesis (M.Phil.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2009.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-149) Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6120 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z