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.

Managers face challenges in leveraging people as a source of competitive advantage due to advancements in technology and the widespread availability of information, which have rendered other sources of competitive advantage less effective. In this context, social sustainability within an organization refers to the enduring relationships between employees and the organization, as well as their collective contribution to organizational goals. Strengthening social sustainability provides opportunities to achieve desired objectives through the efforts of employees. This study presents empirical findings that support the assumptions that sustainable leadership enhances social sustainability, and that micro-level corporate social responsibility (CSR) moderates this relationship. The data were gathered from a randomly selected sample of 516 employees in the healthcare industry, and regression analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypotheses. The results demonstrate a significant role of sustainable leadership on the establishment and development of social sustainability, with micro-level CSR positively influencing this relationship as a moderator. These findings hold both theoretical and practical implications. Given the labor-intensive nature of the healthcare industry and the interconnectedness of the three variables examined in this study, no prior research investigating these connections was found in the literature. Therefore, the research model proposed in this study and its subsequent findings represent a valuable contribution to the existing body of knowledge. The findings offer guidance to hospital administrators, emphasizing the importance of focusing on sustainable leadership and micro-level CSR to reduce turnover rates and cultivate long-term relationships with employees, thereby enhancing organizational effectiveness.