An examination of the link between job content plateau and knowledge hiding from a moral perspective: The mediating role of distrust and perceived exploitation
File version
Version of Record (VoR)
Author(s)
Yan, H
Jiang, Z
Yeo, G
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract
This research aims to address the research question of how knowledge hiding occurs from an ethical lens. Drawing on an integrated ethical decision-making model, we identified job content plateau as an important personally threatening situation that predicts knowledge hiding. We also proposed that attribution of blame—a specific mechanism of moral disengagement—explains how employees experiencing a high job content plateau bypass their moral self-regulation to engage in knowledge hiding. More specifically, employees can cognitively reconstruct themselves as faultless victims who are driven to hide their knowledge because they perceive: (a) their colleagues cannot be trusted; and (b) the knowledge-exchange process in the organization is exploitative. We tested this dual-path mediation model using time-lagged data collected from 301 working adults across three time points. The results supported the mediating roles of perceived distrust in colleagues and perceived exploitation in the organization's knowledge-exchange process, opening the door for future research to better understand knowledge hiding from a moral perspective.
Journal Title
Journal of Vocational Behavior
Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume
145
Issue
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject
Human resources and industrial relations
Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
Applied and developmental psychology
Persistent link to this record
Citation
Hu, X; Yan, H; Jiang, Z; Yeo, G, An examination of the link between job content plateau and knowledge hiding from a moral perspective: The mediating role of distrust and perceived exploitation, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2023, 145, pp. 103911