Fostering a knowledge sharing culture: the role of fun, empowerment, and inclusive leadership

Purpose Knowledge is an important resource that becomes obsolete if not shared in time. Therefore, this study aims to examine how employees’ perceived fun at work affects their psychological empowerment to evoke knowledge-sharing behavior. The study further explored the conditional role of inclusive leadership between the same. Design/methodology/approach Using the time lag approach, the data for the current study was collected from 355 employees working in IT firms. The study used convenience sampling, and structural equation modeling was used for hypotheses testing. Findings The results showed that perceptions of fun have a favorable impact on employees' knowledge sharing behavior and psychological empowerment mediate this relationship. Furthermore, there was no empirical evidence of the conditional role of inclusive leadership between fun and psychological empowerment. However, the results of the alternative model indicated that inclusive leadership moderates the relationship between psychological empowerment and knowledge sharing. Research limitations/implications The findings reveal that management should nurture fun at work as it can lead to psychological empowerment and knowledge sharing. The study also reveals that the role of leadership is important for empowerment and knowledge sharing relationships. Originality/value Based on the conservation of resources and self-determination perspectives, this study proposes and empirically investigates the mechanism of psychological empowerment and inclusive leadership which has largely been an unattended area of research in knowledge sharing literature.