Knowledge hiding as a coping response to the supervisors’ dark triad of personality: A protection motivation theory perspective

Abstract

In the current era of a knowledge-based economy, where the main driver is knowledge transfer, knowledge hiding among employees has become a stumbling block. Drawing on the protection motivation theory, we provide another explanation for employees’ engagement with knowledge-hiding behavior. Specifically, we argue that knowledge hiding is a preventive coping mechanism against the threat induced by supervisors’ dark triad of personality traits. We also introduced mattering and job security as cognitive mediations between the supervisor’s dark triad of personality traits and subordinates’ knowledge-hiding behavior. Our results indicate that the supervisor’s dark personality traits enhance subordinates’ knowledge-hiding behavior, mediated by low mattering perception and threatened job security. We also provide a list of knowledge-hiding antecedents studied over the past ten years. Theoretical and practical contributions along with future research directions are also presented.