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Dissertation
Upsetting balanced opposing forces: the impact of leader knowledge sharing on turnover intention within cross-functional multi-team systems
Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), Drexel University
May 2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00011070
Abstract
Marketing departments operate as multi-team systems (MTSs) where functional teams must coordinate tasks under tight timelines, creating friction. Literature supports that knowledge sharing is essential for competitive advantage and leaders continue to advocate for knowledge sharing to help their cross-functional teams collaborate more effectively and reduce employee turnover. Despite studies also linking job embeddedness to reduced employee turnover, there is a persistent and observable high turnover rate in the marketing industry. This signals that a disconnect exists between leaders' ideologies of how teams work together and the real-world implications on individual turnover. Knowledge sharing is treated as process-driven by leaders, ignoring critical social dimensions like distrust and conflict. In this study, I connect knowledge management (KM) theory with multi-team system (MTS) theory to understand if knowledge sharing promotes turnover intention, rather than mitigates it. First, I hypothesize that job embeddedness has a negative relationship with individual distrust of the other team (IDOT). Second, I suggest that inter-team task conflict strengthens the relationship between job embeddedness and IDOT. Third, I hypothesize that IDOT has a positive relationship with turnover intention. Finally, I suggest that leader knowledge sharing weakens the relationship between IDOT and individual turnover intention. I test my hypotheses in a quantitative survey design of 406 marketing professionals working within a team that collaborates with another team in a cross-functional capacity. The results indicate that mean to high levels of leader knowledge sharing has a positive relationship, as part of a three-way interaction with job embeddedness and mean to high levels of inter-team task conflict, with turnover intention for individuals that perceive they would be making an organization-related sacrifice if they left their jobs. This study contributes to KM theory and MTS theory by finding that leader knowledge sharing can contribute to turnover intention within high-pressure collaborative cross-functional MTSs for these individuals. This study also contributes to KM and MTS theory by adding further nuance to the conversation around leader knowledge sharing as a best practice in mitigating turnover intention, particularly for career-oriented employees that perceive that they are being rewarded for their individual performance. Finally, this study highlights the need for more complex models that incorporate both social identity theory and social exchange theory when examining individual behavior in the complex, highly social environment of a MTS. The results, theoretical implications, and practical implications are discussed.
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Details
- Title
- Upsetting balanced opposing forces
- Creators
- Nadia Khatri
- Contributors
- Lauren D'Innocenzo (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xii, 173 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Bennett S. LeBow College of Business; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991022059033004721