How Narcissism leads to Knowledge Hiding Behavior: The Contingent Role of Anger and Caring Climate in Higher Educational Institutes of Rawalpindi and Islamabad

Abstract

Sharing of knowledge is considered pivotal for the process of innovation and persistent growth of organizations. Despite all the efforts to promote dissemination of knowledge, however, employees indulge in counterproductive knowledge behaviors such as hiding of knowledge requested by others. This research expands the previous literature on knowledge hiding and examined the relationship between narcissism and knowledge hiding behavior of employees accompanied by the intervening role of anger. The study also elucidated the moderating impact of caring climate on the association between anger and knowledge hiding behavior. This research is quantitative in nature and data were gathered from 244 employees working in education sector of Pakistan using convenient sampling technique. The results show that narcissism is positively associated to employees’ knowledge hiding behavior and anger mediates this relationship. Moreover the boundary level effect of caring climate is also established. The findings of this research will broaden the scope through which the influence of narcissism on employee knowledge hiding behaviors can be studied.