R, Prabhu N. Is knowledge hiding in higher education a political phenomenon? An explanatory sequential approach to explore non-linear and three-way interaction effects

Purpose

This study addresses a central research question: Is individuals’ propensity to hide knowledge a “political phenomenon” among researchers in the Indian higher education institutions? Drawing upon social exchange and uncertainty management theories, the authors examine how a three-way interaction effect of perceptions of organizational politics, political will and political skill contributes to knowledge hiding. In addition, this study aims to develop a nuanced understanding of the knowledge hiding phenomenon in the Indian higher education context.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a mixed-method study design with an explanatory sequential approach. The authors gathered data through a cross-sectional survey of 286 researchers (Study 1) followed by two focus group discussions (Study 2) involving 13 academic researchers from five Indian universities. The sample includes full-time faculty members, postgraduate and full-time doctoral students engaged in research.

Findings

The results of Study 1 indicate that researchers’ perceptions of organizational politics positively relate to their knowledge hiding. The findings of this study also suggest that the positive relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and knowledge hiding turns negative for individuals with high political will and high political skill. The focus group discussions (Study 2) explore significant predictors of knowledge hiding. This study unveils various characteristics of knowledge, knowledge hider, knowledge seeker and interpersonal dynamics as the key drivers of knowledge hiding in Indian academia.

Originality/value

The significant contributions of this study are to provide new insights into the relationship between organizational politics and knowledge hiding and to unravel the various factors that incite knowledge hiding among researchers in the Indian higher education context. This study is one among the few in the knowledge hiding literature to adopt a mixed-method research design with an explanatory sequential approach.

The association between workplace ostracism and knowledge-sharing behaviors among Chinese university teachers: The chain mediating model of job burnout and job satisfaction

Workplace ostracism is an essential predictor of knowledge-sharing behaviors, but few studies have explored the influence of this mechanism in higher education. According to the conservation of resources theory, this study elucidated the roles of job burnout and job satisfaction as sequential mediators of the link between workplace ostracism and knowledge-sharing behaviors in a sample of 388 university teachers. The results of the study were analyzed via structural equation modeling (SEM). Higher knowledge-sharing behaviors were associated with lower workplace ostracism, lower job burnout, and more job satisfaction. Furthermore, increased workplace ostracism was associated with more job burnout, but job satisfaction was not related to workplace ostracism. The relationship between workplace ostracism and knowledge-sharing behaviors was mediated by job burnout and was sequentially mediated by job burnout and job satisfaction. These findings help to clarify the mechanisms underlying the association between workplace ostracism and knowledge-sharing behaviors in university teachers. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Alexithymia, social inhibition, affectivity, and knowledge hiding

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the impact of adverse personality traits (alexithymia, social inhibition, negative affectivity) and supervisor knowledge hiding on individual knowledge hiding. This study also explores the moderating role of positive affectivity.

Design/methodology/approach

Partial least squares path modeling and data collected from 518 Polish employees with higher education and extensive professional experience recruited via an Ariadna survey panel were used to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

Two dimensions of alexithymia were considered: difficulty identifying feelings (DIF) and difficulty describing feelings (DDF). DIF has a direct impact on individual hiding, whereas DDF has an indirect impact, via social inhibition. Negative affectivity is a predictor of social inhibition, which enhances knowledge hiding. Positive affectivity slightly weakens the positive and strong effect of supervisor knowledge hiding on subordinate knowledge hiding.

Practical implications

Because alexithymia, social inhibition and negative affectivity may predispose employees to knowledge hiding, managers should identify these personality traits among job applicants and hired employees to make appropriate employment decisions. Moreover, managers should be aware that hiding knowledge by a supervisor may be imitated by subordinates.

Originality/value

Based on conservation of resources theory, this study investigates previously unexplored relationships among alexithymia, social inhibition, affectivity and knowledge hiding.

Effects of Knowledge Hiding in Dual Teaching Methods on Students' Performance-Evidence From Physical Education Department Students

With the post-pandemic situation, digitalization has revolutionized physical teaching into online teaching and has become a common practice. The engagement of students has been essential for their good academic performance which can be ensured by the active participation of the students and this is a real challenge for the teachers. However, sometimes in online and physical teaching, teachers are also involved in rationalized knowledge hiding, which leads to the disengagement of the students, and this ultimately affects their academic performance. Therefore, the present study aims at measuring the students’ disengagement in the teaching classes, both physical and online. The population of the present study is the students from the universities of China belonging to different fields of study. The sample size for this study is 246. The data are obtained through the Questionnaire surveys. The existing study has assessed the role of teachers’ rationalized knowledge hiding behaviors in the disengagement of students and their lesser grades. It has been found that rationalized knowledge hiding in online teaching does not affect students’ performance; however, it makes students disengage from their studies in physical classes. Interestingly, the rationalized knowledge hiding in physical teaching has negatively affected the performance of the students. Furthermore, the mediating role of the students’ disengagement has been found significant in this study. Organizations, especially universities, can ensure maximum knowledge sharing by motivating the instructors through positive reinforcements. This study will be useful for the curriculum coordinators of different departments in ensuring the maximum outcome of the teaching classes, workshops, and seminars conducted either physically or online to avoid the rationalized knowledge hiding of the teachers.

Intellectual Structure of Knowledge Management: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Journal of Information and Knowledge Management

The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management (JIKM) published its first issue in 2002 and celebrated its 19th birthday in 2020. This study aims to assess JIKM performance over its lifetime between 2002 and 2020 by extracting data from the Scopus database and using a combined approach of bibliometric and content analysis. More specifically, we evaluate JIKM’s productivity and stature, discuss its performance compared to other journals, and identify key contributing (authors, institutions, and countries), citation pattern, and conceptual structure. The results highlight JIKM’s growing presence, which is reflected in the dual rise of publication activity and accumulated citation. JIKM becomes one of the preeminent journals in the area of knowledge management, with a broad range of scientific actors’ contributions (authors, institutions and countries) from all over the world. Furthermore, using a bibliographic coupling, keywords’ analysis, and co-authorship analysis, we analyse JIKM’s content and identify the most frequent themes discussed. The analysis reveals that JIKM has expanded its scope from knowledge management to a new array of emerging technologies’ topics such as artificial intelligence and data mining. Graphical visualization of similarities (VOSviewer and Rstudio) shows that the major themes published are clustered into four groups, mainly (i) sustainable knowledge, (ii) emerging technologies, (iii) information management, and (iv) organization culture and knowledge sharing.

The Psychology behind Knowledge Hiding in an Organization

This study aimed to understand the psychological process behind employees’ knowledge hiding (KH) behaviors in organizations. KH is an intentional act of concealing knowledge when it is requested by a colleague and can lead to counterproductive consequences for the organization. Therefore, this study synthesized previous studies (n = 88) on KH through a systematic literature review. We used the cognitive–motivational–relational (CMR) theory of emotion to create a framework for the studies’ findings. Based on the framework, the psychological process behind KH has two stages—personal goal generation and the knowledge-request event appraisal process, each of which contains its own CMR process. In the first stage, an individual’s internal and external attributes related to the organization shape their personal goals. In the second stage, an individual appraises the features of a knowledge-request event in terms of both their personal goal and the internal and external attributes that created the goal. If the knowledge request is appraised as harmful for the personal goal, emotion arises and leads to the manifestation of KH. This study contributes to the knowledge management literature as, to our knowledge, it is the first to propose a CMR theory-based framework to understand the overall psychological process behind KH.