Consequences of Knowledge Hiding: An Emotion-based Reparatory Mechanism

Abstract

Knowledge hiding can have negative consequences, but the mechanisms through which knowledge hiding affects outcomes are still under-theorized. This study proposes that hiding knowledge evokes feelings of guilt and shame in knowledge hiding perpetrators, which in turn trigger an emotion-based reparatory mechanism with differential effects on their subsequent compensatory work behavior (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior). Specifically, drawing from theorizing in the moral emotions literature, we argue that guilt induces the motivation to correct one’s transgressions, whereas shame induces the tendency to withdraw after hiding knowledge. Taken together, we propose that knowledge hiding has a positive indirect effect on organizational citizenship behavior through guilt, but a negative indirect effect through shame. Two studies–a scenario-based experiment with 137 U.S. American employees and a two-wave field study with 275 German employees–provided support for our hypotheses. We discuss how a moral emotion pathway can facilitate novel theorizing about knowledge hiding and compensatory workplace behavior. Finally, our findings suggest that managers should try to elicit more constructive negative emotions (guilt) rather than more destructive ones (shame) as a reaction to employees’ hiding knowledge to facilitate positive compensatory work behavior rather than withdrawal from the situation.