Why and how targets’ negative workplace gossip exhort knowledge hiding? Shedding light on organizational justice

Abdul Gaffar Khan, Yan Li*, Zubair Akram, Umair Akram

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Purpose: Extant scholars identified negative workplace gossip as a social stressor that negatively influences employees’ behavior and attitude. Despite the burgeoning interest in workplace stressors, limited studies have explored how the detrimental consequences of targets’ perceived negative workplace gossip spur their emotions and behaviors. Grounding on conservation of resources and ego depletion theories, this study aims to investigate why and how targets’ negative workplace gossip may contribute to trigger knowledge hiding. Specifically, the authors explore the underlying mechanism of personal ego depletion and boundary conditions of organizational justice to shed new light on the above process. Design/methodology/approach: Using two time-wave survey, the authors collected 340 sample data from employees working in high-tech companies of China. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine hypothesized relationships of moderated mediation model. Findings: The empirical results revealed that negative workplace gossip exacerbates knowledge hiding by increasing personal ego depletion. Furthermore, through testing moderated mediation model, the results showed that organizational justice (i.e. distributive and procedural justice) with the low presence moderates the stronger strength of the linkage between negative workplace gossip and personal ego depletion, and likewise, it also moderates the stronger effect of negative workplace gossip on knowledge hiding via personal ego depletion. Practical implications: This study recommends several guidelines for managers and practitioners to mitigate negative gossip by strengthening organizational justice. Originality/value: This study first enriches novel understanding in the literature between negative workplace gossip and knowledge hiding by using a new emotional mechanism (i.e. personal ego depletion). This research also contributes new insights by incorporating contextual boundary conditions (i.e. organizational justice) that have not been yet researched on negative gossip and knowledge hiding linkage.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1458-1482
    Number of pages25
    JournalJournal of Knowledge Management
    Volume27
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 5 May 2023

    Keywords

    • Conservation of resources theory
    • Ego depletion theory
    • Knowledge hiding
    • Negative workplace gossip
    • Organizational justice
    • Personal ego depletion

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Why and how targets’ negative workplace gossip exhort knowledge hiding? Shedding light on organizational justice'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this

    Khan, A. G., Li, Y., Akram, Z., & Akram, U. (2023). Why and how targets’ negative workplace gossip exhort knowledge hiding? Shedding light on organizational justice. Journal of Knowledge Management, 27(5), 1458-1482. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-12-2020-0930