UNDERSTANDING NARCISSISTS’ KNOWLEDGE HIDING BEHAVIOUR: A MORAL DISENGAGEMENT MECHANISM PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Purpose: Narcissistic people have a strong desire to hold focus only around themselves. Their self-love triggers them to create their monopoly and involve in deviant behavioral outcomes such as knowledge hiding. This study was aimed to examine narcissistic employees’ tendency of knowledge hiding behavior in the presence of underlying mechanisms: moral disengagement as mediator. Methodology: The Data were collected from banking sector professionals using a Likert scale questionnaire based on time-lagged (three rounds, one month apart) survey. Data were analyzed via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using an advanced version of Smart PLS 3.9 and SPSS 21. Findings: Results revealed that narcissism has a significant positive relation with knowledge hiding and also established moral disengagement as an underlying mechanism between the positive association of narcissism and knowledge hiding. The results provide important recommendations for managers to handle narcissistic personalities and knowledge hiding issues in the banking sector of Pakistan. Conclusion: Despite the limitations, the present study enhanced the current knowledge on narcissistic personality features through the moral disengagement perspective with knowledge hiding and enriching the validation of the social cognitive theory. The study results conclude that the banking sector of Pakistan must consider the narcissistic personality of employees behind their issue of knowledge hiding.