This study examines the influence of participative leadership and cultural factors on employees’ speaking-up behaviour and knowledge-sharing in supplier development initiatives in the garment industry. Specifically, this study investigates the impact of leadership effectiveness, cultural dimensions, and individual characteristics using surveys and interviews. Our findings indicate that participative leadership positively correlates with employee speaking-up behaviour. However, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) results show that language proficiency and region significantly influence employees’ willingness to speak up, although the differences in knowledge-sharing scores across cultural groups are statistically insignificant. Mediation analysis further reveals that perceived leadership effectiveness partially mediates the relationship between participatory leadership and knowledge-sharing intentions. The interview findings provide deeper insights into the roles of cultural intelligence, communication barriers, and social identity in shaping knowledge flow. These findings offer practical implications for organisations seeking to enhance supplier development initiatives. To foster an inclusive environment that empowers employee voice and encourages collaborative knowledge sharing, organisations can adopt participative leadership, accommodate cultural and linguistic diversity, and promote effective leadership perceptions. We anticipate that future research will explore the generalisability of these findings across industries and examine additional cultural dimensions that influence knowledge-sharing dynamics.

中文翻译：

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参与式领导、文化因素和直言行为：组织内知识共享的检验


本研究探讨了参与式领导和文化因素对服装行业供应商发展计划中员工的畅所欲言行为和知识共享的影响。具体来说，本研究通过调查和访谈调查了领导有效性、文化维度和个人特征的影响。我们的研究结果表明，参与式领导与员工的直言行为呈正相关。然而，方差分析 (ANOVA) 结果显示，语言熟练程度和地区显着影响员工畅所欲言的意愿，尽管跨文化群体的知识共享得分差异在统计上并不显着。中介分析进一步揭示，感知领导有效性部分中介了参与式领导与知识共享意图之间的关系。访谈结果提供了对文化智力、沟通障碍和社会身份在塑造知识流中的作用的更深入的见解。这些发现为寻求加强供应商发展计划的组织提供了实际意义。为了营造一个赋予员工发言权并鼓励协作知识共享的包容性环境，组织可以采用参与式领导，适应文化和语言多样性，并促进有效的领导观念。我们预计未来的研究将探索这些发现在各行业的普遍性，并研究影响知识共享动态的其他文化维度。