Does humble leadership mitigate employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviour? The mediating role of employees’ self-efficacy and trust in their leader

Abstract

Purpose The concept of knowledge-hiding starkly contradicts the notions with which it is closely associated, such as knowledge-hoarding and knowledge-sharing. The understanding of the effect of humble leadership on follower knowledge-hiding behaviour is particularly limited, as it is significantly underdeveloped owing to its distinct nature. Ergo, this paper aims to explore the role of humble leadership and its ability to mitigate employee knowledge-hiding behaviour. Moreover, this study aims to investigate the mediating effect of employee self-efficacy and the trust that they have in their leader, based on the relationship between humble leadership behaviour and knowledge-hiding in Jordanian health-care organisations. Design/methodology/approach This study used a quantitative method, and 260 employees of Jordan’s health-care organisations completed an online self-report questionnaire. Further to this, structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesised correlations. Findings According to the findings of this study, the leaders who exhibited humble behaviour mitigated their employees’ tendencies to engage in the two dimensions of knowledge-hiding (evasive hiding and playing dumb); however, they increased the tendency to practice rationalised hiding. Furthermore, the self-efficacy of employees and trust in their leader mediated the relationship between humble leadership and employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviour. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by proposing and empirically demonstrating the impact of humble leadership across all three dimensions of knowledge-hiding behaviour, which in turn facilitates new discoveries in a developing country setting. This research expands and sheds light on the theory of humble leadership by proposing a motivational aspect in the negative relation between humble leadership and employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviour: employees’ self-efficacy and trust in their leader.