Research On The Influence Of Self-perceived Knowledge Value On Knowledge Hiding

A poll from more than 1,700 readers shows that 76% of employees have knowledge hiding behaviors with colleagues.A study by AMR shows that although the company spent nearly $73 billion on knowledge management in 2008,the reluctance to transfer knowledge still exists.A survey from China also showed that 46% of employees said they had knowledge hiding behavior in their workplace.It can be seen that the phenomenon of knowledge hiding is widespread in organizations,but unfortunately,this phenomenon has long been ignored by the theoretical community,and it has only gradually attracted the attention of scholars in recent years.Since knowledge exists by attaching to individuals in organizations,individuals' knowledge activities are the key to the utility of knowledge.However,knowledge sharing in organizations is generally an expectation rather than a mandatory behavior.Employees believe that organizations do not have their “intellectual property rights” and cannot force them to pass on knowledge to other members.Therefore,understanding the trigger mechanism and influencing factors of knowledge hiding phenomenon is very important to reduce and break the knowledge hiding behavior in the organization.People are embedded in complex social networks and transactional relationships all the time,relative to the natural attributes(implicit,complex,and embedded)that have been widely studied,this paper argues that the economic and social attributes of knowledge are more worth exploring.Based on the theory of resource preservation and regulatory focus,this research introduces the self perceived value of knowledge as the antecedent variable,the loss of knowledge power as the mediator,and the two performance apprasial goal orientations as the moderators to further explore the formation mechanisms and influencing factors of knowledge hiding.This study first introduced the concepts of self perceived value of knowledge,the loss of knowledge power,the knowledge hiding and the two kinds of performance apprasial goal orientations after comprehensively examining the relevant literature.Second,a theoretical model was developed,and the research hypotheses were then formulated.Third,a survey,that yeild a total of 324 valid questionnaires,was used collect data on knowledge workers.After performing several statistical analyses,the following conclusions were obtained:(1)the self perceived knowledge value may be a one-dimensional construct in the Chinese context,and the perceived usefulness and benefits of knowledge cannot be clearly distinguished in the Chinese culture as their common goal is to create value;(2)unlike foreign three-dimensional structure,the construct of knowledge hiding in the Chinese context may be viewed as the two-dimensional structure of the negative hiding(e.g.,evasive hiding and play dumb)and the reasonable hiding,because both the evasive hiding and play dumb can be seen as deceptive in nature,that are not in line with the traditional Chinese culture and values;(3)the self perceived value of knowledge is positively related to knowledge hiding;and the loss of knowledge power plays a mediating role between the self perceived value of knowledge and the knowledge hiding;(4)the two performance appraisal orientations play different moderating roles between the loss of knowledge power and the negative hiding.Developmental performance appraisal negatively moderated the relationship between the loss of knowledge power and the negative hidding.The evaluation performance appraisal positively moderated the relationship between the loss of knowledge power and the negative hidding.According to the research results,this paper points out the contribution of the research,and puts forward relevant suggestions for the knowledge management practice of the enterprises.It believes that the organizations should pay more attention to the growth and development of employees in performance appraisal,and create an atmosphere of employee cooperation,rather than encouraging mutual comparison and competition among employees.At the end of the article,the limitations of the research and possible future research directions were made,while summary for the entire dissertation was given.