In an era of fierce competition, adapting to a changing environment has become an essential condition for survival. In this time of change and innovation, organizations demand that its members adapt effectively to such changes in order to secure a com...
In an era of fierce competition, adapting to a changing environment has become an essential condition for survival. In this time of change and innovation, organizations demand that its members adapt effectively to such changes in order to secure a competitive edge. As a rapidly changing environment generates a greater volume of non-regular, non-repetitive work, a greater emphasis has been placed on adaptive performance in modern organizations. Cognitive abilities, personality, self-efficacy, goal-orientation, past job performance, and job expertise have been identified as elements that boost adaptive performance. Given that adaptation can be explained as the difference in knowledge before and after change occurs, knowledge needs to be considered as a predisposing factor affecting adaptive performance. However, relatively little research has been performed on this relationship.
This study intends to examine team knowledge sharing and individual knowledge acquisition as predisposing factors affecting individual adaptive performance. Since adaptation takes place based on knowledge enhancement under new, challenging circumstances, knowledge activities that affect individual adaptive performance need to be explored. Knowledge activities are processes that require several steps ranging from knowledge acquisition to knowledge exploitation. This research focuses on knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing because they are critical factors in the process of securing core competencies and play a pivotal role in creating and boosting competitive advantage. This research is also based on the assumption that knowledge acquisition takes place mainly at the individual level, while knowledge sharing primarily occurs at the team level, because individuals acquire knowledge, team members share it, and the organization institutionalizes it.
This research seeks to examine the transformational leadership of team leaders as a predisposing factor affecting team knowledge sharing and individual knowledge acquisition. While transformational leadership, due to factors such as a shared vision, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, increases the number of knowledge activities, existing studies have focused on emotion, motivation and attitudes as factors influenced by transformational leadership. Though previous conceptual research has proposed that transformational leadership enhances team knowledge sharing and individual knowledge acquisition, empirical analysis has yet to confirm this. This research assumes that transformational leadership aims to effect change and innovation, two factors derived from knowledge; this leads to the prediction that the transformational leadership of team leaders will have an impact on team knowledge sharing and individual knowledge acquisition. This research also assumes that transformational leadership improves individual adaptive performance based on the fact that this leadership boosts not only job satisfaction, organizational immersion, psychological well-being, organizational citizenship behavior, and job performance, but also individual adaptive performance via a shared vision with other team members and the expectations of a strong performance. Existing research has investigated emotive, motivational and attitudinal factors in the relationship between transformational leadership and individual effectiveness. Considering, however, that transformational leadership plays a key role in team knowledge sharing and individual knowledge acquisition, and that individual adaptive performance is indicated by the evolution of ability in a dynamic environment, the role of knowledge activities as sophisticated mechanisms in the relationship between team leaders' transformational leadership and individual adaptive performance needs to be explored.
This study collected data from 67 team leaders and 469 action team members. It was found that team knowledge sharing had positive cross-level effect