Impact of Media Richness on Reduction of Knowledge-Hiding Behavior in Enterprises

Abstract

Knowledge hiding is one of the major obstacles in the progression of organizations that hinder the use of tacit knowledge of employees. The negative impact of this behavior is more significant in enterprises and small firms, because they are more reliant on knowledge of their employees. For this reason, factors that influence on tendency of employees to expose and use their knowledge would be appreciated by managers of organizations. With the aid of a conceptual framework in a qualitative study, this paper investigates the effect of media richness on knowledge hiding. Thematic analysis is used to analyze transcribed interview data from employees in a software company in Iran. Findings of the analysis show that media richness significantly impacts on organizational learning and influences on knowledge hiding behavior in employees. This article suggests that entrepreneurs and managers of small firms should provide employees' access to rich media content.