Leadership Social Power as a Component of KMS Success

Goals

This study sought to extend researchers understanding of leadership as an influence on KM success by exploring LSP as a predictor of the success of a KMS implementation. Those who study leadership have noted the importance of understanding the influences among leader and follower, but have cautioned that a simple laundry list of influences (e.g. power, behavior, skills, etc.) does not provide a guarantee of leadership’s ability to promote organizational success (Yukl, 2012). Bowerman & Van Wart (2011) argued the importance of investigating the constructs of leadership to provide leaders with an understanding of individual behaviors that positively affect organizational outcomes. We therefore define LSP as a leader’s social ability to influence or control the behavior and/or attitudes of followers (Yukl, 2012). LSP included leader dimensions of Expert, Reward, Coercive, Legitimate, and Referent powers as perceived by knowledge workers.