Knowledge Management Systems and Technologies
Abbas Ghaedamini Harouni; Mehrdad Sadeghi de Cheshmeh; Ghulam Reza Maleki Farsani; Elahe Musharraf Ghahfarakhi; Somayeh Shah Bandari Guchani
Abstract
IntroductionThe current research is different from these previous works in terms of volume, time period, method and analysis. First, the analysis is based on a meta-combination method, which allows rich data to be combined with fewer subjective or interpretive biases. Unlike the previous studies, concepts ...
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IntroductionThe current research is different from these previous works in terms of volume, time period, method and analysis. First, the analysis is based on a meta-combination method, which allows rich data to be combined with fewer subjective or interpretive biases. Unlike the previous studies, concepts and dimensions, antecedents, consequences and strategies are examined. At the same time, a larger volume of articles has been examined. The current research completes the previous researches and provides a more objective report of the evolution of this research topic. Most of the researches have investigated some aspects and factors affecting knowledge hiding in organizations in a scattered manner. But clearly, a complete integration of existing researches in this field has not been done. Also, an integrated model that brings cause and effect relationships in the form of a conceptual model has not been edited. Therefore, taking into account the existing vacuum of research, an attempt has been made to provide coherence to the scattered researches in this field and provide researchers and managers with a summary of the studies conducted in this field. Considering the importance of knowledge concealment in organizations, this research seeks to provide a conceptual model of knowledge concealment in organizations through the metacombination method. Therefore, with all the factors mentioned above, the current study intends to answer the following questions: 1. What are the key components of knowledge concealment in organizations? 2. What is the conceptual model of knowledge concealment in organizations?Literature ReviewKnowledge concealment is defined as "an individual's deliberate attempt to conceal knowledge requested by another". Hiding knowledge is not always deceptive (Bari et al., 2019), employees may avoid sharing knowledge due to confidentiality. Although the reasoning behind such a decision may seem logical, it still limits access to knowledge (Xiong et al., 2021, Yuan, Yang, Cheng, & Wei, 2021). However, most efforts to facilitate knowledge transfer end without success, because employees are unwilling to share their knowledge (Mahmoud & et al., 2021). Researches show that hiding knowledge weakens social relations, creativity and innovation of employees and thus reduces the performance and achievements of the organization (Cerne et al., 2017). Also, it suppresses the absorption capacity and creativity at the team level (Fong et al., 2018). It is obvious that hiding knowledge is likely to reduce the efficiency of knowledge exchange among members, prevent the generation of new ideas/thoughts, or even destroy trust (Connelly & Kelloway, 2012). Hiding knowledge increases the risk of knowledge loss and inhibits the creativity of individuals and teams in the organization (Cern et al., 2014; Bogilovich et al., 2017). The consequences of knowledge concealment are quite alarming. For example, knowledge concealment fosters negative attitudes and behaviors, creates interpersonal mistrust (Arain et al., 2020), damages relationships (Connelly and Zweig, 2015), knowledge concealment reciprocity (Cern et al., 2014), the desire to leave the job (Ofirgilt et al., 2018) and creating deviant behaviors in the workplace (Singh, 2019). Reduction of positive work attitudes and behaviors and reduction of job satisfaction (Ofirgilt et al., 2018), reduction of self-efficacy (Arain et al., 2019), reduction of organizational citizenship behavior (Arain et al., 2020), reduction of creativity and innovative work behavior (Bogilovi´ c et al., 2020), and reduced performance (Singh, 2019). In this regard, it is necessary to solve the problem of insufficient knowledge sharing by eliminating knowledge hiding and facilitating knowledge transformation in organizations.MethodologyThe current research was conducted with a qualitative approach and due to the existence of many new documents in the field of knowledge concealment in organizations and the possibility of their combined analysis, a meta-composite qualitative research method was used. Metasynthesis is the combination of interpretations of the main data of selected studies. Data analysis in the current research was done based on the metacombination method based on the seven-step model of Sandelowski and Barroso (2007). The mentioned method includes the stages of setting research questions, systematic review of texts, searching and selecting suitable texts, extracting information from texts, analyzing and combining qualitative findings, quality control and expression of findings.ResultsThe findings showed that 555 concepts, 155 subcategories and 25 main categories were extracted, which include causal conditions (organizational factors, individual factors, occupational factors, group factors and knowledge factors), background conditions (personality characteristics, work factors, technical and environmental factors), political factors and cultural factors), intervening conditions (emotional characteristics, emotional characteristics and social factors), strategies (leadership style, strengthening intelligence, strengthening interpersonal communication, strengthening organizational communication, strengthening performance, strengthening Islamic values, strengthening voluntary behaviors and implementation of knowledge management), consequences (occupational, group, organizational and individual).DiscussionThe present study showed that hiding knowledge is driven by different reasons at multiple levels. Regarding the multi-level nature of the antecedents of knowledge concealment and determining different ways to manage hidden knowledge in organizations, it enhances the understanding in the field of organizational behavior. Since the researches about knowledge concealment were strongly focused on the interdependencies of the perpetrator and the target due to mistrust and mutual behavior until now. Also, the present research showed that not only the antecedents of knowledge concealment are multifaceted, but also the consequences of this behavior. By integrating this insight into the organizational and management literature, the current research is related to the researches (Xiao and Cook (2019), de Garcia et al. (2022), Rezvan and Takahashi, 2021; Chern et al., 2014; Connelly and Clovey, 2003; Connelly and Zweig, 2015; Conley et al., 2013; Webster et al., 2008).ConclusionThe present study integrates separate pieces of literature to explain why employees engage in knowledge concealment, thereby connecting disparate pieces of the knowledge concealment puzzle to develop a broader understanding of why employees engage in knowledge concealment. The present study provides a systematic review of knowledge hiding. This was done to identify conceptual patterns about knowledge hiding in organizations between 2012 and 2020 AD and 1391 to 1401 AD. This research is not without limitations. Databases such as Iran Doc, Iran Mag, Normagz, Comprehensive Portal of Human Sciences, Joishgar Alam Net, internal magazines, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Emerald were used as databases, and some other databases may not have been reviewed in this matter. As a result, this review may not cover the full spectrum of the scientific literature on knowledge hiding. In the future, to reduce publication bias, it would be interesting to include other databases to search for interesting texts, for example, work published in journals (ESCI). Second, research on knowledge concealment is emerging, and some researchers may argue that it is not yet mature enough to examine the research field.
