Identity Leadership and Knowledge Sharing in University Administration: The Mediating Role of Team Identification and Ingroup Bias

Background/problem: In contemporary Chinese university management, fostering knowledge sharing is critical for achieving collaboration against reduced human resources. While leadership as an antecedent to facilitate knowledge sharing has been extensively studied, identity leadership has not yet been addressed. Objective/purpose: The study aimed to examine the mediating role of team identification between identity leadership and knowledge sharing behaviors. It also proposed to investigate the effect of team identification on ingroup bias and the potential influence on knowledge sharing. Design and Methodology: This quantitative study collected the data from 385 administrative staff members of Chinese universities using quota sampling. Data was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Results: The findings revealed a positive effect of identity leadership on team identification (β = .65, p < .001), of team identification on knowledge sharing behaviors (β = .38, p < .001), and on ingroup bias (β = .39, p < .001). Team identification mediated the effect of identity leadership and knowledge sharing behaviors (β = .23, p < .001), while the ingroup bias failed to show positive mediation between team identification and knowledge sharing behaviors (β = -.02, p = .34). Conclusion and Implications: The study highlights the role of identification on knowledge sharing and ingroup bias. The findings indicate that while advancement of team identification by engaging identity leadership benefits ingroup knowledge sharing, ingroup bias that has been introduced with overly strong identification should be balanced. It reflects the attitudinal degrading towards the outgroup but failed to promote knowledge sharing among the ingroup.