My knowledge: The negative impact of territorial feelings on employee's own innovation through knowledge hiding

Abstract

Summary Innovation is critical for organizational success but innovation often depends on employee's willingness to share, which they surprisingly are not always willing to do despite potential negative costs to the individuals who hide information. Drawing on psychological ownership theory, we explain how knowledge engenders territorial feelings and leads employees to hide knowledge. Using social exchange theory, we explain how certain types of knowledge hiding behavior negatively impact the hider by reducing their own innovation. To explore potential mitigating factors, we proposed that affect‐based trust alleviates the relationship between territorial feelings and knowledge hiding and buffers the harmful effect of territorial feelings on innovative behavior. We tested the model in two studies: a pilot study of 133 full‐time employees (Study 1) and a two‐wave investigation of 30 supervisors and 240 employees (Study 2). Results revealed that (a) territorial feelings positively influenced evasive hiding and playing dumb but not rationalized hiding, (b) evasive hiding and playing dumb mediated the link between territorial feelings and innovative behavior, (c) affect‐based trust moderated the relationship between territorial feelings and evasive hiding as well as the indirect effects of territorial feelings on employee innovative behavior via evasive hiding. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Personal Competition Among Sports Players and Their Performance as a Team: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…We also studied the dimension of playing dumb as a mediator between personal competition and team performance. Certain studies have also evaluated the mediating role of playing dumb in various perspectives, i.e., interpersonal conflict and psychological strain ( Venz and Nesher Shoshan, 2021 ), territorial feeling, and innovation of employees ( Guo et al, 2022 ), etc. Several researchers have focused on mediating the role of knowledge hiding in different perspectives, i.e., abusive supervision and employee creativity ( Jahanzeb et al, 2019 ).…”

How organizational psychological ownership affects corporate green operations - Based on a social exchange theory perspective

“…Social exchange theory also believes that exchange in social life exists not only between individuals, but also between individuals and organizations. Organizational psychological ownership satisfies employees' sense of place, efficacy, and self-identity, and employees will reciprocate by performing reciprocal behaviors that benefit the organization (Guo et al, 2022). Based on this, it is reasonable to assume that employees' organizational psychological ownership has an impact on the green operation of the company.…”

“…The essence of organizational psychological ownership lies in the individual's occupation and control of the organization, i.e., the individual perceives that the organization belongs to the self itself. Therefore, organizational psychological ownership makes employees naturally feel a sense of responsibility and obligation to the organization (Zhang et al, 2021), and are more likely to reciprocate by performing beneficial reciprocal behaviors for the organization (Guo et al, 2022). Based on this, it is reasonable to assume that employees' organizational psychological ownership will have an impact on corporate green operations activities.…”

CEOs’ leadership behaviors and new venture team stability: The effects of knowledge hiding and team collectivism

“…According to social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), knowledge hiding destroys positive reciprocal exchange relationships and negatively influences individuals' psychological well-being. Therefore, researchers exerted major effort to identify the consequences of knowledge hiding, such as individuals' innovative behavior (Guo et al, 2022), individual and team creativity (Wang et al, 2019), and team performance (Zhang and Min, 2019). However, the negative consequences of knowledge hiding in NVTs have been overlooked.…”