Adoption of social media-based knowledge-sharing behaviour and authentic leadership development: evidence from the educational sector of Pakistan during COVID-19

Abstract

Purpose This research paper aims to explore the influence of social media–based knowledge-sharing intentions (SMKI) on prospective authentic leadership development (ALD) to deal with the future crisis. In the existing literature, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no significant empirical evidence to test the relationship between SMKI and ALD. Thus, this study contributes to the growing literature regarding the role of SMKIs, ALD, social media–based knowledge-sharing behavior (SMKB) and facilitating conditions (FCs). However, in this study, the authors developed a conceptual framework based on technology adoption and leadership theory. It was used to identify preservice educational leaders’ SMKIs and their effect on ALD to deal with an educational crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, SMKIs are strengthening ALD, directly and indirectly, using SMKB and FCs. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the higher education students are considered preservice leaders who were enrolled in educational leadership and management programs. However, this study’s target population and sample are students enrolled in educational leadership and management programs. Therefore, higher education students are considered preservice educational leaders. Therefore, a multilevel questionnaire survey approach was adopted to collect data from preservice educational leaders (n = 451 at Time 1 and n = 398 at Time 2) enrolled in education departments in the selected universities in Pakistan. A total of 398 survey questionnaires were finalized with a return ratio of 89%. The partial least square structural equation modeling with SmartPLS 3.2.8 was used for the data analysis. Findings This research found that SMKIs are positively and significantly connected with ALD. This study also confirms that SMKB significantly and positively mediates the relationship between SMKIs and ALD. Therefore, this study concludes that preservice educational leaders were ready to adopt SMKB. Practical implications Social media–based knowledge sharing can be helpful to develop authentic leadership among preservice educational leaders during a crisis. Preservice educational leaders as authentic leaders can prove to be an asset in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Originality/value This research integrated the technology adoption model and leadership theory to provide empirical evidence of SMKIs’ direct and indirect influence on ALD through social media–based knowledge-sharing actual use behavior by preservice educational leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the moderated mediating effect of the FCs was also studied in the relationship between SMKIs and actual user behavior as well as ALD.

Knowledge sharing and theory of planned behavior: a bibliometric analysis

“…Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use within TAM facilitate individuals with knowledge sharing in online communities (Chandran and Alammari, 2021). The UTAUT, on the other hand, suggests the influence of effort expectancy (EE), performance expectancy (PE), social influence (SI) and facilitating condition (FC) on technology usage (Asghar et al , 2022). The first three UTAUT predictors (EE, PE and SI) are perceptual indicators influencing individual knowledge-sharing behavior, while FC influences actual technology usage (Wicks et al , 2020).…”

“…Figure 4 Mapping of co-word analysis performance expectancy (PE), social influence (SI) and facilitating condition (FC) on technology usage (Asghar et al, 2022). The first three UTAUT predictors (EE, PE and SI) are perceptual indicators influencing individual knowledge-sharing behavior, while FC influences actual technology usage (Wicks et al, 2020).…”

Exploring the impact of virtual leadership on job satisfaction in the post-COVID-19 era: The mediating role of work–life balance and trust in leaders

“…The participants were from all project-related departments and various seniority levels. Data confidentiality disclosure and exclusion of sensitive information (e.g., income, name, and religion) were noted to reduce the common method bias (Podsakoff et al, 2003 ; Asghar et al, 2022 ; Rasool et al, 2022 ). Table 1 provides a report on the respondents' profiles.…”

Guest editorial

“…The second section contains three papers. Using Pakistan's educational sector as a background setting, Asghar et al (2022) investigate the impacts of social media-based knowledge-sharing intentions and behaviours on the development of authentic leadership to more effectively tackle COVID-19-elicited problems. They also examined the intervening effects of facilitating conditions on the foregoing mechanisms.…”