Whether and How Subordinates Passively Respond to Top-Down Knowledge Hiding in Organizations

Abstract

Drawing on the integrated theoretical frameworks of social exchange theory and social cognitive theory, we developed a multilevel mediation model in which moral disengagement (level-1) mediated the direct relationships between knowledge hiding by supervisors from subordinates (KHSS: level-2) and supervisor directed organizational citizenship behavior (SOCB: level-1) and supervisor directed silence (SS: level-1). Using data of 83 supervisors matched with 306 subordinates, multilevel structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) results showed that KHSS had a direct (1) negative effect on subordinates’ SOCB and (2) positive effect on subordinates’ SS. Further, these direct effects were then significantly mediated by subordinates’ moral disengagement. These findings offer useful theoretical and managerial implications for the behavioral consequences of knowledge hiding.