The link between interpersonal conflict and knowledge hiding: mediated by relatedness need frustration, moderated by narcissistic rivalry

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between employees’ experience of interpersonal conflict and their engagement in knowledge hiding, according to a mediating effect of their relatedness need frustration and a moderating effect of their narcissistic rivalry. Design/methodology/approach The tests of the hypotheses rely on three-wave, time-lagged data collected among employees in Pakistan. Findings A critical reason that emotion-based fights stimulate people to conceal valuable knowledge from their coworkers is that these employees believe their needs for belongingness or relatedness are not being met. This mediating role of relatedness need frustration is particularly salient among employees who are self-centered and see others as rivals, with no right to fight with or give them a hard time. Practical implications The findings indicate how organizations might mitigate the risk that negative relationship dynamics among their employees escalate into dysfunctional knowledge hiding behavior. They should work to hire and retain employees who are benevolent and encourage them to see colleagues as allies instead of rivals. Originality/value This research unpacks the link between interpersonal conflict and knowledge hiding by explicating the unexplored roles of two critical factors (relatedness need frustration and narcissistic rivalry) in this relationship.

Abusive Supervision and Its Impact on Knowledge Hiding Behavior Among Sales Force

The purpose of this study is to test the relationship between abusive supervision and employee’s knowledge hiding behavior (evasive hiding, playing dumb, rationalized hiding) among sales force of insurance companies in Pakistan. The paper also strives to theoretically discuss and then seek empirical evidence to the mediational paths of psychological contract breach that explain the focal relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding. To test the proposed hypotheses, the study draws cross-sectional data from sales force of insurance companies working in Pakistan. Data were collected through structured questionnaire and using convenient sampling technique. The final sample of 340 valid and complete responses analyzed using structured equation modeling (partial least square) approach. Results showed that abusive supervision is positively related to employee’s knowledge hiding behaviors. Also, mediating variable psychological contract breach partially mediates the abusive supervision-knowledge hiding behavior linkage. Current study has tested the positive relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors unlike most of the previous investigations that have focused on knowledge sharing behavior. The study also empirically investigated the mediational route of psychological contract breach, that explains the blame attributed by the beleaguered employee that led to covert retaliatory behavior, such as knowledge hiding. This paper contributes to knowledge hiding literature which is an important part of knowledge management from the perspective of abusive supervision based on both reactance theory and SET theory.

Two facets of pride and knowledge hiding: an empirical analysis

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether or not the two facets of pride, hubristic and authentic, are associated with knowledge hiding. Design/methodology/approach This study collects survey data (N = 343) from one of the leading information technology (IT) companies in Myanmar at two stages with a two-month interval. This study uses multiple regression analyses to test this study’s hypotheses. Findings Results reveal that hubristic pride is positively related to knowledge hiding, whereas the relationship between authentic pride and knowledge hiding is negative. These relationships are contingent upon the level of employees’ self-efficacy. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that managers should include measures for moral emotions in their recruitment and selection criteria. Furthermore, the authors suggest that managers should design strategies to induce moral emotions at the workplace and enhance personal resources (e.g. self-efficacy), which have an instrumental effect in maximizing the prosocial facet of pride (i.e. authentic pride) as well as minimizing adverse experiences of the antisocial facet of pride (i.e. hubristic pride), thereby reducing knowledge hiding. Originality/value The findings shed light on the significance of the inclusion of emotional variables in understanding employees’ knowledge hiding. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first empirical study to examine the combined effect of emotive and cognitive variables in predicting knowledge hiding by demonstrating that hubristic pride only mitigates knowledge hiding behavior among high self-efficacious employees.

Antecedents of Knowledge Hiding and Their Impact on Organizational Performance

Research on knowledge management has rapidly increased in the last decade, leaving a huge gap on how, why, and what triggers knowledge hiding in inter-organizational setups. Furthermore, the fostering factors for knowledge sharing have also remained unexplored because the employees in an organization are unwilling to share their knowledge with others for several reasons. The current study has attempted to explore the reasons that make employees hide their knowledge from other employees in order to excel. The individual factors considered in this study that make employees hide their knowledge are the lack of rewards for knowledge sharing, internal competition, and psychological entitlement. Furthermore, the interesting consequent factor of knowledge hiding in this study was found to be significant. The moderating role of employees’ social status has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between knowledge-hiding behavior and organizational performance. The population of the study was the managerial employees of financial institutions of China and the sample size taken in his study was 446 via convenient sampling technique. The independent factors in this study found significant results of knowledge-hiding behavior, thus approving the mediating role of knowledge hiding in the organizational performance of the financial institutions of China. The software used in this study for the data analysis was smart PLS and the technique used was partial least square SEM for the measurement of the hypothesis of the study. The study’s findings also have certain implications for policymaking in financial institutions that may hinder knowledge hiding practices and support the uninterrupted flow of knowledge among employees.

The Empirical Investigation Between Ethical Leadership and Knowledge-Hiding Behavior in Financial Service Sector: A Moderated-Mediated Model

This study aimed to investigate the impact of ethical leadership on knowledge-hiding behavior of the employees working in the financial services sector under the mediating role of meaningful at work and moderating role of ethical climate. For this purpose, data were collected from two hundred and fifteen employees of financial services providing organizations. The already-established scales were followed to develop an instrument that was used to obtain responses from the respondents. Collected data were analyzed by applying the structural equation modeling through Smart PLS and Process Macro. The results indicate that ethical leadership and meaningful work (MW) reduce knowledge-hiding behavior of employees at work, while ethical leadership positively impacts the influential work of employees at the workplace. Further, the relationship between ethical leadership and knowledge-hiding behavior is partially mediated by MW. Similarly, ethical climate moderated the relationship between ethical leadership and knowledge-hiding behavior. This research makes valuable contributions to the existing literature on leadership and knowledge management. From a practical point of view, this study stresses that managers at work should promote ethical leadership styles to promote MW, which will reduce knowledge hiding. Thus, in this way, it will enhance the innovation and creativity within organizational circuits. The limitations and future directions of this study are also listed.

Assessing the Relationship Between Technostress and Knowledge Hiding—A Moderated Mediation Model

Almost every aspect of a person's daily life is affected by information and communication technologies (ICTs), and some unfavorable outcomes such as technostress have been noticed. In this study, we examine how technostress affects knowledge hiding. Drawing from the energy-consuming characteristic of technostress and prior research on how technostress affects ICT users, this article builds and tests a model that takes work exhaustion as a mediator and explores the moderating role of job autonomy. To test our conceptual model, we examined the responses to a survey questionnaire submitted by 287 ICT users from multiple organizations. Using structural equation modeling, we found that technostress increases employees’ knowledge hiding behavior, and work exhaustion partially mediates technostress and knowledge hiding, while job autonomy only moderates the relationship between technostress and work exhaustion when the fourth factor of technostress, viz., techno-insecurity, is excluded. We also discuss future research directions and implications of the results.

Knowledge Hiding: Current Research Status and Future Research Directions

This article provides a review of scientific articles addressing the topic of knowledge hiding in organizations. Based on a descriptive analysis, bibliometric analysis, and content analysis of a sample of 81 articles published in the academic journals in the Web of Science from 2012 to 2020, we identify the main areas and current dynamics of knowledge hiding research. Our results show that the central research themes of knowledge hiding include five clusters: concept and dimensions, antecedents, consequences, theories, and influence mechanisms. Based on our findings, we suggest future research should further develop the concept and dimensions of knowledge hiding; probe deeper into the consequences of knowledge hiding; explore multilateral, cross-level, and collective knowledge hiding; employ innovative theoretical perspectives and research methods to study knowledge hiding; and address how cultural and other contextual factors may shape the knowledge hiding behavior.

The Consequences of Knowledge Hiding Behavior in Organizations: A Systematic Literature Review

This study aims to provide a systematic review regarding the consequences of knowledge hiding in the organization by ascertaining, synthesizing and evaluating theoretical, methodological and empirical dimensions of other works in the field. Design/methodology/approach: applying systematic review methodology to present the current consequences of knowledge hiding behavior in organizations. Findings: all of the studies indicated that knowledge hiding behavior hurts organizational performance and develop unhealthy working environments. Limitations/ implications: this systematic review is designed only to present a conceptual synthesis of existing works. A meta-analysis to an empirical study to obtain a more detailed framework is encouraged. Originality/value: this study contributes to organizational behavior literature by identifying the consequences of knowledge hiding, presenting the different methodological frameworks used to establish the relationships between knowledge hiding and their consequences, and to introduce the gaps for future researches.

How Knowledge-Hiding Behavior Among Manufacturing Professionals Influences Functional Interdependence and Turnover Intention

Objectives: Knowledge hiding is inappropriate behavior of employees at the workplace that makes the entire organization suffer a subtle yet significant loss. Lack of sharing makes the journey of learning an arduous process. This, in turn, gives rise to a series of uncivil behaviors, hence resulting in a decrease of functional interdependence (FI). The cascading result toll is a turnover intention (TI), resting only after turnover—an actual separation from the employer. Statistical analysis of the empirical data collected depicts the intensity of influence of FI and TI as a result of the knowledge-hiding behavior.Methods: Three hundred sixty-three executives employed in three public and two private manufacturing organizations in eastern India were the respondents in our study. To analyze the difference in variables of the study, a t-test was carried out. The statistical findings suggest no significant difference among study variables. This specifies that, despite a considerable difference in levels of management, there was no significant difference in perceiving workplace incivility, knowledge-hiding behavior, FI, and TI items of our instruments.Results: Correlation findings show a negative association between workplace incivility and functional interdependence (r = −0.37 when the value of p is <0.01) and a positive association among workplace incivility and turnover intention (r = 0.32 when the value of p is <0.01). The condensed effect of workplace incivility (β = −0.59 when the value of p is <0.001) along with an important presence of knowledge-hiding behavior (β = −0.68 when the value of p is <0.01) when the dependent variable is FI indicates that knowledge-hiding behavior is mediating a partial association among workplace incivility and FI. Similarly, the effect of workplace incivility (β = 0.43 when the value of p is <0.01) is decreased when the impact of knowledge-hiding behavior (β = 0.66 when the value of p is <0.001) was sizeable with TI being the dependent variable.Conclusion: The effect of knowledge hiding is inversely proportional to FI, whereas sharing has a direct relation with TI. An exhaustive data sample and a rigorous statistical analysis may give a clear picture of the amount of impact of TI and FI due to the lack of knowledge sharing and/or knowledge hiding.