Keywords: Knowledge hiding, Knowledge sharing, Culture, Expert power, Referent power, Knowledge workers, Organizational behaviour

Knowledge hiding is an intentional attempt by an individual to withhold knowledge. Though knowledge hiding as a research area has gained popularity only in recent years, the withholding of knowledge has long been a concern for business organizations, which has significant implications for knowledge management. Accordingly, knowledge hiding as a construct has received enough deliberations from the practitioners. However, academic researchers have called for more systematic research on knowledge hiding, giving enough motivation to carry out this research. Consequently, a detailed morphological analysis is undertaken on the topic, and a total of 184 pertinent research gaps are identified. Based on the output of morphological analysis, two significant research gaps are identified, and as a result, a research plan is developed with two broad objectives to address the identified research gaps.
Though earlier studies have identified some of the antecedents of knowledge hiding, a comprehensive understanding of all the critical knowledge hiding predictors is still not available. This study addresses this issue by identifying a comprehensive set of knowledge hiding predictors and analyzing them based on specific contexts. As a result, strategic factors engineering knowledge hiding are analyzed based on contrasting cultural contexts and job experience. These studies are undertaken with the help of TISM and MICMAC methodologies. The study takes both the contrasting American and Indian cultural contexts to understand the dynamics of knowledge hiding predictors. The results show that for the individualistic American culture, personality traits and emotional intelligence are the driving factors that trigger knowledge hiding, whereas apart from the interpersonal trust, the complexity and uncertainty of task-in-hand act as the critical driving factors of knowledge hiding in the collectivistic Indian context.
The next part of the study, which analyses knowledge hiding predictors based on the job experience, provides interesting results. The study reveals that knowledge hiding behaviour is more pronounced in the initial years of an individual within the organization. Workplace ostracism and job insecurity are the critical driving factors during this period. Similarly, the knowledge hiding behavior is significant in the final years of an individual within the organization. During this phase, the non-availability of an efficient knowledge management system acts as the main driver. In the period in between both these, there are no critical driving factors that infuse knowledge hiding. Further, a holistic understanding of all the critical knowledge hiding predictors is obtained by undertaking a specific case series analysis that attempts to capture the neuropsychology behind knowledge hiding. The study reveals that certain typical factors like young, attractive, verbal, intelligent and successful (YAVIS) and other personal attributes like insight trigger knowledge hiding tendencies apart from certain other critical physiological conditions.
As indicated by our morphological analysis and underscored by critical literature reviews, there are hardly any studies that look into ‘Power’ and ‘Knowledge sharing and hiding.’ Therefore, the second part of this study investigates how employees’ expert and referent power influence their knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding behavior. For this, a two-wave survey design is adopted, and the study applies polynomial regression and surface response plots to investigate the effects of the discrepancy between employees’ current levels of power and their expected levels if they divulge their unique knowledge. The study finds that employees with strong expert and referent power are more likely to share knowledge and that expected losses in power are associated with reduced knowledge sharing and increased knowledge hiding. Surprisingly, the study finds that these negative outcomes are also associated with expected gains in power. Therefore, the study suggests that power plays an important, but complex role in influencing employee participation in knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding. This implies that the optimal situation for knowledge sharing is one in which employees’ contributions are valued, and their reputation is not expected to change due to sharing knowledge. The decision to engage in knowledge sharing or hiding occurs in a complex, dynamic social system that is only approximated through the type of research followed in this thesis including survey research. Thus, it is recommended that future studies employ more sophisticated methods for investigating how social processes (e.g., trust and reciprocity) and structures (e.g., relations among team members) influence knowledge exchange, such as social network analysis or make use of longitudinal studies to understand the ongoing participation in knowledge sharing and/or hiding due to the factors underscored by this thesis.