Towards Explaining Knowledge Hiding through Relationship Conflict, Frustration, and Irritability: The Case of Public Sector Teaching Hospitals

Tahira Alam, Zia Ullah, Fatima Saleh AlDhaen, Esra AlDhaen, Naveed Ahmad and Miklas Scholz
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Tahira Alam: Faculty of Management Sciences, Islamic International University, Islamabad 45000, Pakistan
Zia Ullah: Faculty of Business Administration, Lahore Leads University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Fatima Saleh AlDhaen: Department of Management, Law and Social Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Esra AlDhaen: Department of Management, Marketing and Information Systems, College of Business & Finance, Ahlia University Manama, Manama 10878, Bahrain
Naveed Ahmad: Faculty of Management Studies, University of Central Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Miklas Scholz: Division of Water Resources Engineering, Department of Building and Environmental Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, 22100 Lund, Sweden

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 22, 1-15

Abstract: Organizations grow and excel with knowledge sharing; on the other hand, knowledge hiding is a negative behavior that impedes innovation, growth, problem solving, and timely correct decision making in organizations. It becomes more critical in the case of teaching hospitals, where, besides patient care, medical students are taught and trained. We assume that negative emotions lead employees to hide explicit knowledge, and in the same vein, this study has attempted to explain the hiding of explicit knowledge in the presence of relational conflicts, frustration, and irritability. We collected data from 290 employees of a public sector healthcare organization on adopted scales to test conjectured relationships among selected variables. Statistical treatments were applied to determine the quality of the data and inferential statistics were used to test hypotheses. The findings reveal that relationship conflicts positively affect knowledge hiding, and frustration partially mediates the relationship between relationship conflicts and knowledge hiding. Irritability moderates the relationship between relationship conflicts and frustration. The findings have both theoretical and empirical implications. Theoretically, the study tests a novel combination of variables, and adds details regarding the intensity of their relationships to the existing body of literature. Practically, the study guides hospital administrators in managing knowledge hiding, and informs on how to maintain it at the lowest possible level.

Keywords: relationship conflict; frustration; irritability; knowledge hiding; healthcare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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