Can paternalistic leaders enhance knowledge sharing? The roles of organizational commitment and Islamic work ethics

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effect of paternalistic leadership (benevolent, moral and authoritarian) on knowledge sharing of nurses through the mediation of organizational commitment (affective, continuance and normative). Further, the study examines the moderating role of Islamic work ethics on the association between organizational commitment and knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach In this quantitative study, data was collected from 312 nurses working in the health-care sector of Pakistan through “Google Forms” in two waves. Moreover, structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The study noted affective and normative commitment as mediators between the associations of benevolent, moral and authoritarian leadership with knowledge sharing, whereas continuance commitment was not found as an explaining variable. In addition, Islamic work ethics was found to strengthen the association of affective and normative commitment with knowledge sharing. However, Islamic work ethics was found to weaken the association between continuance commitment and knowledge sharing. Practical implications This study offers practical insights for health-care executives to act as fatherly figures to enhance the knowledge sharing of their nurses. The study recommends that managers in the health-care system build such an environment that helps nurses follow Islamic work ethics. It may enhance their level of organizational commitment and encourage them to engage in knowledge sharing behaviors to have a successful work environment. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to extend the literature on paternalistic leadership. More specifically, this study investigated how various dimensions of paternalistic leadership (benevolent, moral and authoritarian) effects three-dimensional commitment (affective, continuance and normative) to enhance knowledge sharing behavior among nurses.