The influence of leader-member exchange relationships on team members' relationships and knowledge sharing behaviour

The importance of innovation for organizational competitive advantage and effectiveness is widely accepted (Love et al., 2011). Because of its potential to increase innovation, knowledge sharing (KS) has been of growing interest to researchers and managers (Kamaşak & Bulutlar, 2010). It is suggested that knowledge sharing is more likely to occur in supportive conditions when individuals have high-quality relationships with their leaders and co-workers (Carmeli et al., 2013). The purpose of the present study is to examine the association between the workplace relationships in teams and knowledge sharing, and how the pattern of knowledge sharing in teams is associated with team innovation and team performance. Social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity served as the theoretical foundation of the present study. A cross-sectional survey was utilized for data collection. The sample consisted of 223 members and 51 leaders from 51 teams which were collected from ten primary and middle schools as well as an aircraft corporation in Southern China. The results of the study demonstrated that both Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and Team-Member Exchange (TMX) are positively associated with knowledge sharing at the individual and team levels. Furthermore, the results suggested a mediating effect of TMX between LMX and team-level knowledge sharing (team KS). In Addition, the result of the comparison of an individual’s own LMX with the average LMXs in the team (RLMX) was found to moderate the relationship between LMX and TMX. However, the expected negative relationship between the variation in LMX relationships in a team (LMX differentiation) and TMX was not statistically significant. Finally, the study also found that the pattern of knowledge sharing in teams is positively related to team innovation and team performance, such that teams with more people sharing knowledge have better innovation and performance than teams with only a few people sharing knowledge. The overall findings indicate that both LMX and TMX have a unique influence on knowledge sharing, and our understanding of how supportive social relationships influence wok outcomes should be expanded from looking at the vertical leader-follower relationship and the horizontal relationship with a team in isolation. Rather, the multi-level interactions of these two types of relationships should be considered together.