How and when workplace suspicion triggers knowledge hiding: the cross-level moderation effects of performance climate and mastery climate

ABSTRACT

Based on conservation of resources theory and social information processing theory, the paper explores how workplace suspicion behaviors by suspicious perceivers initiate subsequent knowledge hiding via psychological distress and under the cross-level moderation of team performance climate and mastery climate. This research collected multi-wave 552 valid employee questionnaires nested in 83 teams from service sector companies located in the central and eastern China. We analyzed data using multi-level analysis based on hierarchical linear modelling. Results showed that workplace suspicion is positively related to knowledge hiding, whereas psychological distress plays a mediating role in the relationship. Moreover, performance climate positively moderates the accelerating effect of workplace suspicion and psychological distress on knowledge hiding, while mastery climate negatively moderates the accelerating effect of workplace suspicion and psychological distress on knowledge hiding. The research contributes to examining the relationship between workplace suspicion and knowledge hiding in service organizations from the “actor-centric” perspective. Furthermore, the study provides a first step to reveal the “black box” of the impact of workplace suspicion on knowledge hiding and clarify the boundary conditions for the influence of workplace suspicion and psychological distress on knowledge hiding.

摘要

基于资源保存理论和社会信息加工理论，本文探讨了猜疑者的职场猜疑如何在团队绩效氛围和掌握氛围的跨层次调节作用下，通过心理困扰引发后续知识隐藏行为。研究收集了来自中国东部和中部地区服务公司中83个团队的552份有效员工问卷数据，并基于层次线性建模的多层次分析方法对数据进行了分析。结果表明，职场猜疑与知识隐藏具有正相关关系，心理困扰在其间发挥中介作用。同时，绩效氛围增强了职场猜疑和心理困扰对知识隐藏的促进作用，而精熟氛围则减弱了职场猜疑和心理困扰对知识隐藏的促进作用。该研究有助于以“行为者为中心”的视角探究职场猜疑与知识隐藏之间的关系，是对揭示职场猜疑影响知识隐藏“黑箱”效应的首次尝试，并且明确了职场猜疑和心理困扰对知识隐藏影响的边界条件。

KEYWORDS:

• Workplace suspicion
• psychological distress
• knowledge hiding
• performance climate
• mastery climate

关键词:

• 职场猜疑
• 心理困扰
• 知识隐藏
• 绩效氛围
• 精熟氛围

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Shanghai (CN) [grant number 2019EGL011 and 2020BGL004].