Supervisor Bottom-Line Mentality and Knowledge Hiding: A Moderated Mediation Model

Organizations need to respond to multiple demands, not only of shareholders but of stakeholders. Supervisor mentality that focuses on bottom-line goals, such as financial performance, can result in negative consequences. We used conservation of resources theory to examine how and when employees engage in knowledge hiding toward coworkers was influenced by supervisor bottom-line mentality. A two-wave survey (N = 274) revealed a positive impact of supervisor bottom-line mentality on knowledge hiding toward coworkers via prevention-based psychological ownership. Further, the higher the competitive psychological climate, the stronger the positive relationship between supervisor bottom-line mentality and knowledge hiding via prevention-based psychological ownership. Our study highlights the negative effect of supervisor bottom-line mentality on knowledge transfer among employees.

Stretch goals and unethical behavior: role of ambivalent identification and competitive psychological climate

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effect of stretch goals on unethical behavior and explore the mediating role of ambivalent identification and moderating role of competitive psychological climate.Design/methodology/approachA total of 350 MBA students from Northwestern China completed the two-phase survey. The bootstrapping analysis outlined by Hayes was used to assess a moderated mediation model.FindingsThis study found that stretch goals could trigger employees' unethical behavior via ambivalent identification. Competitive psychological climate intensified the relationship between stretch goals and ambivalent identification. Moreover, such a climate aggravated the indirect effect of stretch goals on unethical behavior via ambivalent identification.Practical implicationsOrganizations and managers should use stretch goals prudently and implement measures to reduce the ethical cost.Originality/valueThis study provides unique contributions by identifying ambivalent identification as an important mediator and competitive psychological climate as a boundary condition of stretch goals' disruptive effect on unethical behavior.

Effect of competitive psychological climate on unethical pro-team behavior: The role of perceived insider status and transformational leadership

Summary The purpose of this study is to explain why employees in financial companies in Sri Lanka are likely to engage in unethical pro-team behaviors and how transformational leaders involve controlling unethical pro-team behaviors in a competitive work environment. The study employed a quantitative approach to investigate the association between the competitive psychological climate and perceived insider status on unethical pro-team behaviors. The authors collected data from 426 sales representatives at a finance company in Sri Lanka and tested hypotheses using Structural Equation Modelling analyses through Smart PLS version 3. The results indicate that competitive psychological climate and perceived insider status are positively associated with unethical pro-team behaviors. Further, the transformational leadership’s moderation is negatively significant on the relationship between competitive psychological climate and unethical pro-team behaviors. The study has shown that the leader will delegate more responsibility to the employee, associated with increased employee empowerment and high-quality, ethical behaviors. Besides, it contributes to the literature as of the new theoretical base and offers practical implications with the richer view of a nomological link between the leader, competitive employee, and competitive work environment.

Knowledge hiding as the dark side of competitive psychological climate

PurposePrevious studies suggest that competitive psychological climate at workplace may influence employee's attitudes and behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether competitive psychological climate leads to increased knowledge-hiding behavior.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we developed a conceptual model which we empirically tested using survey data collected from 296 salespersons from one of the largest distribution market expansion companies in Myanmar.FindingsWe performed hierarchical regression analyses on the data obtained from 296 salespersons to confirm our hypotheses: competitive psychological climate is positively related to knowledge hiding. This relationship becomes weaker when there is high level of organizational justice and high level of optimism.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings shed light on the dark side of competitive psychological climate, such that it translates into knowledge hiding, which is not beneficial for favorable organizational outcomes. To mitigate that, management needs to focus on promoting organizational justice and recruit more optimistic employees.Originality/valueAlthough there are many previous studies on competitive psychological climate and its positive and negative impacts, this paper, to the authors' best knowledge, is the first to study its specific effect on knowledge hiding in the sales context.

Antecedents of Employees’ Goal Orientation and the Effects of Goal Orientation on E-Learning Outcomes: The Roles of Intra-Organizational Environment

Organizational learning is beneficial for the maintenance and development of an organization’s long-term competitive advantages. However, organizational learning can be achieved only through the learning carried out by individual members. Therefore, employees’ learning plays a critical role in companies that pursue sustainable management. E-learning allows employees to learn without any time or space constraints, which strengthens and improves organizational learning capacity. The participants of this study were employees in small and medium-sized enterprises. This study explored and identified the ways in which these employees’ perceived intra-organizational environment (including the organization’s commitment to learning and a competitive psychological climate) affects their learning outcomes through their goal orientations and computer anxiety (CA). A questionnaire was administered to the employees who have used an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) e-learning platform. The results indicated that an organization’s commitment to learning and its competitive psychological climate affect e-learning outcomes, with employees’ goal orientations and CA acting as mediator variables. Furthermore, in contrast to past studies, this study found that the organization’s competitive psychological climate could strengthen employees’ learning motivation (i.e., learning goal orientation) and their desire to perform well (i.e., proving goal orientation), thus improving their e-learning outcomes. Finally, the empirical results were used to develop recommendations for high-ranking executives, department managers, and human resource departments.