Trapped in a loss spiral: how and when work alienation relates to knowledge hiding

How and when team-member exchange influences knowledge hiding behaviors: A moderated dual-pathway model

Purpose

This study explored the influence of team member exchange on employees' knowledge hiding behaviors via job embeddedness and work alienation, with learning goal orientation acting as the boundary condition.

Method

ology: This study adopted a quantitative multi-study research methodology to validate the proposed hypotheses, combining a time-lagged field study with 459 in-service employees and a scenario-based experiment with 128 university students at a northern university in China.

Findings

In Study 1 (field study), team-member exchange was negatively associated with knowledge hiding, and job embeddedness and work alienation mediated this relationship. Perceptions of learning goal orientation can amplify the effect of team-member exchange on job embeddedness and work alienation, which in turn reduces knowledge hiding behaviors. A subsequent experiment (Study 2) almost replicated and supported these findings, but work alienation did not play a role as an intermediary in the relationship between team member exchange and knowledge hiding behavior.

Practical implications

Managers should stimulate social exchanges among team members to inhibit knowledge hiding behaviors and prioritize individuals exhibiting higher learning goal orientations when deciding whom to hire.

Originality

This research identifies and rationalizes how (underlying mechanisms) and when (contingencies) team-member exchange can make a difference in employees' knowledge hiding behaviors, expanding and advancing further research on the knowledge hiding phenomenon from a team perspective.

Linking abusive supervision to service sabotage through work alienation in nurses: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Abusive supervision has detrimental effects on nurses, but the mechanisms connecting abusive supervision to negative outcomes for nurses have not been well-established in the nursing literature.

AIM

This study aimed to investigate whether work alienation mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and nurses' service sabotage.

METHODS

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from November to December 2021 with 204 nurses working at a teaching hospital in Damanhour, Egypt. Data were collected using a demographic information form, the Abusive Supervision Scale, the Work Alienation Scale and the Service Sabotage Scale. Study hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modelling.

RESULTS

Our findings revealed a significant association between abusive supervision, work alienation, and service sabotage among nurses. Abusive supervision was found to be linked to nurses' service sabotage through work alienation.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that nurses who are subject to abusive supervision are more likely to feel alienated, which increases the probability of them engaging in behaviours that have a negative impact on the quality of care they provide.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient or public contribution.

Work alienation and its relationship with job crafting and job embeddedness among a group of Iranian nurses during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Background

The difficult work conditions of nurses during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic can cause them work alienation. Work alienation is in turn associated with negative consequences such as turnover intention. Therefore, identifying the contributing factors of work alienation is essential.

Aim

This study aimed to assess the relationship of work alienation with job crafting and job embeddedness among a group of Iranian nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A total of 332 eligible nurses participated in this descriptive correlational study. The data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the work alienation measure, the job crafting scale and the global measure of job embeddedness.

Results

The mean scores of work alienation, job embeddedness and job crafting were 22.67 ± 6.46 (possible range: 7-49), 21.05 ± 3.65 (possible range: 7-35) and 77.54 ± 11.93 (possible range: 21-105), respectively. Work alienation had a significant inverse correlation with job embeddedness and job crafting. Job crafting and job embeddedness significantly predicted 44% of the variance of work alienation.

Conclusions

Around half of the variance of work alienation is explained by job crafting and job embeddedness. Nursing managers can use strategies to improve nurses' job embeddedness and job crafting in order to reduce the probability of their work alienation.

Entrepreneurs' role overload and empowering leadership: A reciprocal relationship based on conservation of resources

Introduction

Role overload is not new, but its increasing prevalence in recent years calls for further research. This study considers empowering leadership as a means of resource investment and proposes that it is exerted by entrepreneurs to reduce their role overload. This study adds clarity by revealing how entrepreneurs' role overload is mitigated via the intermediate mechanism of empowering leadership. Hypotheses are derived from conservation of resources theory.

Methods

Data were collected from 315 entrepreneurs in China using a three-round questionnaire survey.

Results

This study finds that entrepreneurs' previous experience of role overload positively relates to their current empowering leadership behavior and their previous empowering leadership behavior negatively relates to their current role overload, which implies a mediating role of empowering leadership. Specifically, the second stage of the indirect effect of previous role overload on current role overload through empowering leadership is moderated by top management team (TMT) heterogeneity. When TMT heterogeneity is higher, the negative indirect effect is stronger.

Discussion

This study contributes to the idea of positive psychology and extends the scope of conservation of resources theory into the fields of entrepreneurship and leadership.

Standing in customers’ shoes: How responsible leadership inhibits unethical pro-organizational behavior

Although the negative impact of responsible leadership on employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior has been documented in the literature, little is known about its underlying processes and boundaries. Drawing on social information processing theory and social learning theory, we built a moderated mediation model to explain why and when unethical pro-organizational behavior could be inhibited by responsible leadership. We conducted a two-phase questionnaire survey to collect data. The empirical results based on the sample of 557 Chinese salespeople showed that customer-oriented perspective taking partially mediated the negative link between responsible leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior and that leader competence strengthened the direct effects of responsible leadership on customer-oriented perspective taking and unethical pro-organizational behavior as well as the indirect effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior via customer-oriented perspective taking. These findings enrich the current understanding of how responsible leadership relates to unethical pro-organizational behavior, extend the limited literature on customer-oriented perspective taking, and offer some suggestions that managers can follow to inhibit unethical pro-organizational behavior. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Nurses’ feeling trusted and knowledge hiding: The role of psychological safety, felt obligation and traditionality

Knowledge hiding is one of the dilemmas of organizational knowledge management. For nurses, knowledge hiding behavior is not conducive to improving the quality and efficiency of their work and hinders the innovation of nursing services. Based on the social exchange theory, the current study constructed a moderated mediation model by taking psychological safety and felt obligation as mediating variables, and traditionality as moderating variable, and explored the mechanism of feeling trusted affecting knowledge hiding behavior. The empirical research based on 285 nurses from China shows that feeling trusted is negative correlate with knowledge hiding behavior; feeling trusted can negatively affect knowledge hiding by enhancing psychological safety and felt obligation; traditionality can positively moderate the relationship between feeling trusted and felt obligation, and feeling trusted has a stronger positive influence on felt obligation of highly traditional nurses; traditionality has no significant moderating effect between feeling trusted and psychological safety. Theoretically, this study supplements the influencing factors of knowledge hiding, examines the complex mechanism between feeling trusted and knowledge hiding and supplements the boundary conditions for feeling trusted to play its role from the perspective of individual characteristics (i.e., traditionality). From the perspective of practical implication, this study suggests that managers should pay attention to using trust strategies to enhance subordinates’ psychological safety and felt obligation, especially for highly traditional nurses, thus reducing knowledge hiding.

How time pressure is associated with knowledge sharing: a dual-path mechanism study

Purpose

This study aims to explore the dual-path effects of challenge (CTP) and hindrance time pressure (HTP) on knowledge sharing, which provides theoretical reference for knowledge teams to carry out knowledge sharing smoothly.

Design/methodology/approach

This study collected two waves of data and surveyed 416 employees in China. Regression analysis, bootstrapping and structure equitation modeling was adopted to test the hypotheses.

Findings

CTP has a positive impact on employee knowledge sharing, while HTP has a negative impact on employee knowledge sharing. Self-efficacy plays a mediating role between CTP and knowledge sharing, and emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role between HTP and knowledge sharing. The perceived organizational support can moderate the relationship between CTP and self-efficacy and between HTP and emotional exhaustion.

Originality/value

This study explains the reasons for the academic controversy about the effect of time pressure, enhances the scholars’ attention and understanding of the dual-path mechanism between time pressure and knowledge sharing and augments the theoretical research of time pressure and knowledge sharing.

The role of cognition, affect, and resources in the influence of unreasonable tasks on work engagement: A moderated chain mediation model

Some studies have concentrated on the adverse effects of unreasonable tasks on work engagement. So far, however, the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship have not been adequately discussed. Based on the cognitive-affective systems theory and the job demands-resources model, this study constructs a chain mediation model in which unreasonable tasks influence work engagement through work alienation and negative affect and explores the moderating role of supervisor support in the model. An analysis of 427 questionnaires from multiple types of organizations shows that: Unreasonable tasks have a negative impact on work engagement; work alienation and negative affect play both separate and chain mediating roles in the negative effect of unreasonable tasks on work engagement, and supervisor support negatively moderates chain mediation by moderating the positive effect of unreasonable tasks on work alienation. This study re-investigates the relationship between unreasonable tasks and work engagement from cognitive, affective, and resource perspectives, which could be a valuable addition to established research and provide suggestions and assistance for management practice.

Do overqualified employees hide knowledge? The mediating role of psychological contract breach

Although the negative effects of a sense of overqualification on organizations and individuals have been examined, it is debatable whether overqualified employees hide knowledge. Relying on the social comparison theory and psychological contract theory, this paper tried to investigate the non-linear relationship between perceived overqualification and knowledge hiding via psychological contract breach by surveying employees with bachelor’s degrees or above and eventually recruited 475 participants. The results indicated that psychological contract breach acts a partial mediating role in the inverted U-shaped relationship between perceived overqualification and knowledge hiding, while leader-member exchange acts as a moderator. The finding manifests that overqualification encourages employees to hide knowledge, but their possibly vigorous aspects will be displayed when a certain limit is exceeded. This study benefits organizations by advising them to dialectically treat and properly place overqualified employees and contributes to the research on overqualified employees’ knowledge management by offering a new explanation and complete understanding of perceived overqualification and knowledge hiding, with specific focus given to the psychological states of employees.

Predictors and Consequences of Work Alienation in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Two Longitudinal Studies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The present research investigates whether employees felt more alienated from their work during the COVID-19 pandemic than before it, and examines the causes and consequences of this increase in work alienation. To do so, two longitudinal studies using data collected before (T1; October 2019 [Study 1] and November 2019 [Study 2]) and during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (T2; May 2020 [Studies 1 and 2]) were conducted (i.e., repeated measures). Data of both studies were analyzed using unobserved effects panel data models. Results of Study 1 (N = 197) indicated that employees reported higher levels of work alienation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Going one step further, results of Study 2 (N = 295) showed that this higher feeling of work alienation may be explained by an increase in professional isolation and a decrease in meaningfulness of work induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Results also demonstrated that this increase in work alienation negatively affected employees' job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions. Findings are discussed and practical implications for managers are identified.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03372-9.

Does Technostress Increase R&D Employees' Knowledge Hiding in the Digital Era?

Technostress as an antecedent factor exploring knowledge hiding continues to be seldomly discussed in the digital era. Based on the job demand-resource theory, this article introduces work exhaustion as a mediator variable and constructs a model that the five sub-dimensions of technostress (i.e., overload, invasion, complexity, insecurity, and uncertainty) affect knowledge hiding for R&D employees. Similarly, this study analyzes the moderation of workplace friendship as the resource buffering effect. Based on data from the 254 questionnaires of the two-stage survey, empirical results show that: (1) Techno-invasion, techno-insecurity, and techno-complexity have significant positive effects on work exhaustion, and techno-invasion has the greatest effect. However, techno-overload and techno-uncertainty have no significant relationship with work exhaustion. (2) Work exhaustion plays a mediating role in the relationships between the three aspects of technostress (techno-invasion, techno-insecurity, techno-complexity) and knowledge hiding; However, its mediating effects are insignificant in the relationships between the two aspects of technostress (techno-overload and techno-uncertainty) and knowledge hiding. (3) Workplace friendship negatively moderates the relationships between the two aspects of technostress (techno-invasion and techno-insecurity) and work exhaustion, leading to less knowledge hiding. Nonetheless, its negative moderation for the relationships between the two aspects of technostress (techno-overload and techno-uncertainty) and work exhaustion are insignificant. Empirical results further show that workplace friendship positively moderates the relationship between techno-complexity and work exhaustion.

Effects of Motivational Climate on Knowledge Hiding: The Mediating Role of Work Alienation

Although knowledge is arguably an organization’s most important resource, many organizations still practice knowledge hiding. This study explores how an organization’s motivational climate—mediated by work alienation among its members—influences knowledge hiding from the perspective of the conservation of resources (COR) theory. Specifically, we establish hypotheses that the performance and mastery climates, mediated by work alienation, have positive and negative effects on knowledge hiding, respectively. To verify these hypotheses, we conducted a survey among members of Chinese companies, through which 200 responses were collected through a two-wave panel design. The results of the analysis demonstrated that motivational climate, as an antecedent of knowledge hiding, has a significant effect on work alienation. We also found that work alienation mediated the relationship between (a) performance climate, and (b) mastery climate and knowledge hiding. Based on these findings, we discuss the research implications and limitations while suggesting directions for future studies.