When serving others sparks sharing: A social exchange perspective on servant leadership and collective knowledge behavior

Purpose – This study aims to investigate how servant leadership fosters employee knowledge sharing. It focuses on voice behavior and work engagement as mediating mechanisms and examines organizational justice and individualism as critical boundary conditions. Design/methodology/approach – A moderated mediation model was proposed and empirically tested across two complementary studies: a survey of 187 non-Chinese employees employed in European subsidiaries of Chinese multinational enterprises and a scenario-based experimental study involving 171 working individuals in the UK. Findings – The findings reveal that servant leadership fosters knowledge sharing by activating employee voice behavior. This mediating process is contingent upon the perceived fairness of the organizational context; specifically, the positive effect of servant leadership on voice behavior is amplified when employees perceive organizational justice to be high. Originality/value – This research advances servant leadership literature by uncovering voice behavior as a mediator of its effect on employee knowledge sharing, moderated by organizational justice. Using survey and experimental methods, it enhances theoretical understanding in leadership and knowledge management and offers practical insights for fostering knowledge sharing through leadership initiatives.