Why should I share knowledge with others? A review-based framework on events leading to knowledge hiding

Abstract

PurposeThe significance of managing and sharing employee knowledge for successful organizational change, innovation, and for sustainable advantage has indeed been suggested by research since the last few decades. Despite numerous attempts to foster the sharing of knowledge in organizations, employees may not always be willing to share knowledge attributed due to personal beliefs or situational constraints leading to hiding of knowledge. This article provides a theoretical basis by identifying and illustrating the present and the possible myriad of knowledge hiding (KH) events by employees within organizations.Design/methodology/approachDrawing literature from numerous sources, this paper adopts synthesis and provides a review of the literature and proposes framework.FindingsThis paper identifies six broad drivers which may lead to KH, including: driven by situation explain the reason for unintentional hiding as a result of performance and competition leads to individual to have a motive to hide knowledge, driven by psychological ownership leads to controlled hiding, driven by hostility and abuse by employees or managers leads to victimized hiding and lastly driven by identity and norms leads to favoured hiding. Furthermore, this study uncovers three potential future events, which need managerial attention: negative reciprocity, influenced disengagement and perceived disengagement.Originality/valueThis paper also offers new insights to managers to understand the present events and foresee the possible reasons about the KH behaviour and how they can strategize to reduce these events and undergo organizational change.