Why do employees hide knowledge after working hours? Linking non-working time ICT demands to deceptive knowledge hiding
Abstract
Purpose
Employees may adopt deceptive knowledge hiding (DKH) due to nonworking time information and communication technology (ICT) demands. Drawing from the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study aims to develop and test a model of deceptive knowledge hiding (DKH) due to nonworking time information and communication technology (ICT) demands.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 300 service employees have joined the three-wave surveys. Path analysis and bootstrapping methods were used to test the theoretical model.
Findings
Results suggest that knowledge requests during nonworking time could deplete employees’ resources and increase their tendency to engage in DKH, whereas work recovery and emotional exhaustion mediate this relationship. In addition, employees’ work–family segmentation preferences (WFSP) were found to moderate the direct effects of nonworking time ICT demands on employees’ work recovery and emotional exhaustion and the indirect effects of knowledge requests after working hours on DKH through employees’ work recovery and emotional exhaustion.
Originality/value
First, the findings of this study shed light on the relationship between knowledge requests during employees’ nonworking time and knowledge hiding, suggesting that knowledge hiding could occur beyond working hours. Second, drawing on COR theory, this study explored two joint processes of resource replenishment failure and depletion and how nonworking time ICT demands trigger knowledge hiding. Third, the interaction effect of individuals’ WFSP and nonworking time factors on knowledge hiding deepens the understanding of when nonworking time ICT demands may induce knowledge hiding through various processes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Corrigendum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article He, P., Zhou, H., Zhou, Q., Jiang, C. and Anand, A. (2024), “Why do employees hide knowledge after working hours? Linking non-working time ICT demands to deceptive knowledge hiding”, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-05-2023-0393, did not include an affiliation for. Dr. Amitabh Anand. This error was introduced during the submission process. Amitabh Anand is based at Excelia Business School, CERIIM, La Rochelle, France. The authors sincerely apologise for this error and for any misunderstanding.
The authors are truly grateful to all the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback that enabled them to improve the manuscript’s quality. Dr Amitabh Anand who is an affiliated fellow at the Corvinus Institute of Advanced Studies (CIAS), thanks CIAS, Budapest, Hungary, for its support during this research.
Research funding was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (72172048; 71802087; 71801097).
Compliance with ethical standards.
Conflict of interest : The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval : This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Citation
He, P., Zhou, H., Zhou, Q., Jiang, C. and Anand, A. (2024), "Why do employees hide knowledge after working hours? Linking non-working time ICT demands to deceptive knowledge hiding", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-05-2023-0393
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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