How and when team-member exchange influences knowledge hiding behaviors: A moderated dual-pathway model

Purpose

This study explored the influence of team member exchange on employees' knowledge hiding behaviors via job embeddedness and work alienation, with learning goal orientation acting as the boundary condition.

Method

ology: This study adopted a quantitative multi-study research methodology to validate the proposed hypotheses, combining a time-lagged field study with 459 in-service employees and a scenario-based experiment with 128 university students at a northern university in China.

Findings

In Study 1 (field study), team-member exchange was negatively associated with knowledge hiding, and job embeddedness and work alienation mediated this relationship. Perceptions of learning goal orientation can amplify the effect of team-member exchange on job embeddedness and work alienation, which in turn reduces knowledge hiding behaviors. A subsequent experiment (Study 2) almost replicated and supported these findings, but work alienation did not play a role as an intermediary in the relationship between team member exchange and knowledge hiding behavior.

Practical implications

Managers should stimulate social exchanges among team members to inhibit knowledge hiding behaviors and prioritize individuals exhibiting higher learning goal orientations when deciding whom to hire.

Originality

This research identifies and rationalizes how (underlying mechanisms) and when (contingencies) team-member exchange can make a difference in employees' knowledge hiding behaviors, expanding and advancing further research on the knowledge hiding phenomenon from a team perspective.

How workplace bullying affects knowledge hiding? The roles of psychological contract breach and learning goal orientation

Purpose

Workplace bullying is a serious problem among nurses, which results in negative workplace behavior. Therefore, this study aims to understand how workplace bullying affects employees’ knowledge hiding behavior. Specifically, this study explored psychological contract breach as an underlying mechanism between workplace bullying and knowledge hiding; and learning goal orientation as a boundary condition between psychological contract breach and knowledge hiding.

Design/methodology/approach

The study collected data from 343 nurses working in the health-care sector of Pakistan on convenience basis using a questionnaire-based survey between December 2021 to March 2022. The data were analyzed through structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results revealed the adverse effect of workplace bullying on knowledge hiding behaviors among nurses, and psychological contract breach was noted to mediate this association. Further, learning goal orientation was noted to buffer the relationship between psychological contract breach and knowledge hiding.

Research limitations/implications

The cross-section design may restrict causality; however, the findings suggest health-care administration take appropriate measures to reduce the adverse effects of workplace bullying. In addition, the administration is suggested to implement training programs to make nurses capable of dealing with workplace stressors (bullying and psychological contract breach).

Originality/value

This research provides a novel perspective to consider psychological contract breach as a mechanism between workplace bullying and knowledge hiding in the health-care sector from the conservation of resources perspective. It further explored learning goal orientation as a buffer to mitigate the effect of psychological contract breach on knowledge hiding.

How does workplace ostracism affect employee innovation behavior: An analysis of chain mediating effect

This study seeks to examine the relationship between workplace ostracism and innovation behavior while considering the mediating role of knowledge hiding and organizational identification. The study also tests the moderating role of task interdependence in these relationships. The study collected data through structured questionnaires from 409 participants (i.e., employees) working in the small to medium-sized enterprise of big cities of China. The study adopted a structured equation modeling technique for data analysis. Significantly, the study results suggest that workplace ostracism is negatively associated with innovation behavior, both directly and indirectly via knowledge hiding and organizational identification. We also find that task interdependence weakens the positive relationship between workplace ostracism and knowledge hiding. Current study has tested the negative relationship between workplace ostracism and innovation behavior unlike most of the previous investigations that have focused on positive factors. Our study from a rational perspective to explore the influence mechanism between workplace ostracism and innovation behavior is addition to the previous research and the rich, in revelation managers motivate employees to implement knowledge sharing activities at the same time, pay attention to take measures to restrain negative knowledge such as knowledge hidden activities, to activate the creativity of organization staff of intellectual resources. This paper contributes to innovation behavior literature which is an important part of innovation management based on both conservation of resources theory and social network theory.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Knowledge-Hiding Research

Knowledge hiding, defined as an intentional attempt to conceal requested knowledge, has become a hot topic in management and psychology in the last decade. Emerging research has suggested that knowledge hiding is not simply the opposite of knowledge sharing, such that it is crucial to clarify the concept, explore the research progress and development trend of knowledge hiding. Based on 243 relevant articles, a bibliometric analysis of knowledge-hiding research is presented via descriptive, keyword and citation analysis. Results reveal that knowledge-hiding research, mainly focusing on the disciplines of management, business and psychology, is currently in a period of rapid growth, especially in the past two or three years. The systematic review of knowledge-hiding research enables us intuitively to obtain a panoramic view, including publication performance, thematic evolution and most influential topics of the field via a set of science maps, enabling future authors to investigate knowledge hiding and focus their research more effectively.

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.

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.

Towards Explaining Knowledge Hiding through Relationship Conflict, Frustration, and Irritability: The Case of Public Sector Teaching Hospitals

Organizations grow and excel with knowledge sharing; on the other hand, knowledge hiding is a negative behavior that impedes innovation, growth, problem solving, and timely correct decision making in organizations. It becomes more critical in the case of teaching hospitals, where, besides patient care, medical students are taught and trained. We assume that negative emotions lead employees to hide explicit knowledge, and in the same vein, this study has attempted to explain the hiding of explicit knowledge in the presence of relational conflicts, frustration, and irritability. We collected data from 290 employees of a public sector healthcare organization on adopted scales to test conjectured relationships among selected variables. Statistical treatments were applied to determine the quality of the data and inferential statistics were used to test hypotheses. The findings reveal that relationship conflicts positively affect knowledge hiding, and frustration partially mediates the relationship between relationship conflicts and knowledge hiding. Irritability moderates the relationship between relationship conflicts and frustration. The findings have both theoretical and empirical implications. Theoretically, the study tests a novel combination of variables, and adds details regarding the intensity of their relationships to the existing body of literature. Practically, the study guides hospital administrators in managing knowledge hiding, and informs on how to maintain it at the lowest possible level.

The Psychology behind Knowledge Hiding in an Organization

This study aimed to understand the psychological process behind employees’ knowledge hiding (KH) behaviors in organizations. KH is an intentional act of concealing knowledge when it is requested by a colleague and can lead to counterproductive consequences for the organization. Therefore, this study synthesized previous studies (n = 88) on KH through a systematic literature review. We used the cognitive–motivational–relational (CMR) theory of emotion to create a framework for the studies’ findings. Based on the framework, the psychological process behind KH has two stages—personal goal generation and the knowledge-request event appraisal process, each of which contains its own CMR process. In the first stage, an individual’s internal and external attributes related to the organization shape their personal goals. In the second stage, an individual appraises the features of a knowledge-request event in terms of both their personal goal and the internal and external attributes that created the goal. If the knowledge request is appraised as harmful for the personal goal, emotion arises and leads to the manifestation of KH. This study contributes to the knowledge management literature as, to our knowledge, it is the first to propose a CMR theory-based framework to understand the overall psychological process behind KH.