Knowledge hiding in organizations

TLDR

Despite efforts to enhance knowledge transfer, success has been elusive as employees often refuse to share knowledge even when organizational practices facilitate transfer. The study develops and investigates the construct of knowledge hiding, establishing its existence and distinguishing it from related concepts such as hoarding and sharing. The authors identify multiple predictors of knowledge hiding within organizations. Three studies reveal that knowledge hiding consists of three factors—evasive hiding, rationalized hiding, and playing dumb—each predicted by distrust and distinct interpersonal and organizational predictors, offering implications for future research. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Summary Despite the efforts to enhance knowledge transfer in organizations, success has been elusive. It is becoming clear that in many instances employees are unwilling to share their knowledge even when organizational practices are designed to facilitate transfer. Consequently, this paper develops and investigates a novel construct, knowledge hiding. We establish that knowledge hiding exists, we distinguish knowledge hiding from related concepts (knowledge hoarding and knowledge sharing), and we develop a multidimensional measure of this construct. We also identify several predictors of knowledge hiding in organizations. The results of three studies, using different methods, suggest that knowledge hiding is comprised of three related factors: evasive hiding, rationalized hiding, and playing dumb. Each of these hiding behaviors is predicted by distrust, yet each also has a different set of interpersonal and organizational predictors. We draw implications for future research on knowledge management. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.