Ethical Leadership And Knowledge Hiding Behavior:A Dual Moderated Mediation Path Analysis

Ethical lapses still prevalent at the management level in the organizations calls for an in depth analysis of the factors which can prevent them from happening.In addition,the current literature on knowledge management is deficient on the antecedents and consequences of knowledge hiding.In order to address the gap a theoretical model examining how the two dimensions of ethical leadership separately influence a follower’s knowledge hiding behavior is presented in this study.The role of moral identity and trust on supervisor as mediators are also investigated.Furthermore,the boundary conditions for these relationships to hold were also identified and tested.Future research and theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.The proposed relationships are explained employing social learning theory and social exchange theory.Primary data was collected from full time employees in the marketing department of financial institutions of Pakistan.The empirical findings of this study suggest that both the dimensions of ethical leadership have a negative and significant impact on all three dimensions of knowledge hiding.The results also indicate that trust in supervisor mediates the relationship for ethical leadership moral person dimension and evasive hiding and playing dumb,but shows partial mediation for ethical leadership(moral person dimension)and rationalized hiding.The results for mediation of moral identity showed it partially mediated the relationship for ethical leadership moral manager dimension and all three dimensions of knowledge hiding.It was also found that psychological safety and interactional justice moderate the ethical leadership moral person to trust in supervisor relationship,and Islamic Work Ethics and value congruence moderates the ethical leadership moral manager to moral identity relationship.The moderated mediation results were also proven.The results of the study have important implications for organizational managers wherein they should focus on demonstrating themselves as both moral person and moral managers as it can facilitate in decreasing the knowledge hiding behavior of the employees and this relationship can be strengthened by incorporating a greater sense of interactional justice,psychological safety,value congruence with employees,and Islamic Work Ethics.Overall this study also contributes to the existing literature on ethical leadership and knowledge management by showing that these variables are correlated and also by defining the boundary conditions under which this relationship will be stronger.Organizational managers should focus on demonstrating ethical behavior both in personal capacity and as managers.Ethics sensitivity training can prove to be beneficial for both the managers and employees.The current study collected data from a single source(i.e.employees)in the organization,future studies can benefit by collecting data from supervisor and followers both.