Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of top-down knowledge hiding in buying and supplying firms. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a multiple case study methodology by considering four UAE-based firms and further employing 20 semi-structured interviews with managers of buying and supplying firms having a local and foreign nationality. Findings Based on the qualitative interviews, senior managers were found to be intentionally hiding knowledge from their managers based on five individual, three interpersonal and two firm-level reasons. Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations. First, the results of this study are not generalizable to a broader population. Second, this study explores behavioural patterns with respect to United Arab Emirates culture only. Practical implications Firms can use the findings of this study to understand what really motivates senior managers to intentionally hide knowledge from their subordinates. Also, this study provides some constructive guidelines to firms/senior management, which can discourage the culture of knowledge hiding in firms. Originality/value This study contributes to knowledge management literature by revealing multi-level and multi-faceted antecedents of top-down knowledge hiding in buying and supplying firms in the supply chain context.

In times of financial austerity, public organizations are forced, either by internally motivated goals or externally mandated policies, to implement reforms and changes to cut back on expenses. While organizational change happens with increasing magnitude and frequency in public sector organizations, much of public management research concerning organizational change has mainly focused on change at the sector or national level. This study, on the contrary, focuses on a more micro-level and individual perspective by investigating the simultaneous influence of content, context, process, and leadership on employees' affective commitment to change (ACC) in a non-Western, Islamic setting. To test the study's hypotheses, data were collected from a sample of 147 employees in five public sector organizations that recently witnessed major structural changes in Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Regression results reveal that process-related variables and transformational leadership behavior of direct supervisors enhance commitment to change while employees' negative perception of his or her change history (a context-related factor) impedes commitment to change. The findings support the external validity of previous findings in Western, non-Islamic settings, and, thus, would increase our understanding of organizational change theories in non-Western settings.

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