“Articulating Cognizance About What to Hide What not": Insights into Why and When Ethical Leadership Regulates Employee Knowledge-Hiding Behaviors

Moazzam Ali (), Muhammad Usman (), Muhammad Aamir Shafique Khan (), Imran Shafique () and Farooq Mughal ()
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Moazzam Ali: COMSATS University Islamabad
Muhammad Usman: University of Hertfordshire
Muhammad Aamir Shafique Khan: Jiangsu University
Imran Shafique: COMSATS University Islamabad
Farooq Mughal: University of Bath

Journal of Business Ethics, 2024, vol. 190, issue 4, No 8, 885-895

Abstract: Abstract Given the dearth of research examining the distinctions across various facets of employee knowledge-hiding (KH) behaviors, there is little known about why and when leadership negatively influences playing dumb and evasive hiding but positively influences rationalized hiding. The present study fills this void by hypothesizing that employee justice orientation (JO) acts as a mediator of the associations of ethical leadership (EL) with different facets of employee KH behaviors. We also propose employee conscientiousness moderates the relationship of EL with JO and the indirect relationships of ethical leadership with distinct variants of employee KH behaviors. The results based on time-lagged data from 387 employees provide support for the hypothesized relationships. Together, our research provides a more nuanced account of the influence of leadership on employee KH behaviors that can facilitate the development of more appropriate interventions to deal with the intricate problems related to employee KH behaviors.

Keywords: Ethical leadership; Justice orientation; Conscientiousness; Playing dumb; Rationalized hiding; Evasive hiding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05426-9

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