How perpetrators and targets construe knowledge hiding in organizations

TLDR

Knowledge hiding has been shown to have negative organizational consequences. The study examines whether different types of knowledge hiding vary in their harmfulness. The study found that hiders anticipate relationship harm and retaliation, but targets do not always view the behavior as harmful or retaliatory; overall, not all knowledge hiding is equally damaging, and some forms may actually strengthen relationships and disrupt the hiding cycle.

Abstract

Research has begun to document the negative organizational consequences of knowledge hiding, or the intentional attempt to conceal knowledge, among employees. However, different knowledge hiding behaviours exist, and we explore whether some types of knowledge hiding are more harmful than others. Although theory would suggest that knowledge hiders rationalize their behaviours and fail to anticipate the negative consequences of their behaviours, we found that they did anticipate harmed relationships and retaliation. In addition, targets of knowledge hiding did not always construe the behaviour as harmful or as necessitating retaliation. Overall, our research suggests that not all knowledge hiding is equally harmful. Some types of knowledge hiding may actually enhance the relationships between colleagues and might break the cycle of knowledge hiding in organizations.