TY - JOUR

T1 - The implications of knowledge hiding at work for recovery after work: A diary study

AU - Venz, Laura

AU - Connelly, Catherine

AU - Boettcher, Katrin

N1 - Conference code: 81

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Past research on at-work predictors of after-work recovery mainly focused on what happened to someone at work. Yet, employees also act at work, and their own behavior and its consequences likely affect their ability to recover as well. Based on this premise, we bring together recovery research and research on moral behavior in organizations, examining the intrapersonal consequences of knowledge hiding, the intentional attempt to withhold knowledge that others have requested, for employee recovery. Specifically, we propose that knowledge hiding poses a moral dilemma, and thus has both positive (lower exhaustion) and negative (lower performance) intraindividual consequences that represent two opposing pathways to recovery in terms of work-related remorse in the evening and vigor the next morning. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a diary study across ten workdays, analyzing 517 daily reports from 152 participants. The results of multilevel path modeling suggest that day-specific knowledge hiding (in the form of playing dumb) can have both good (i.e., saving energy resources) and bad (i.e., low immediate performance) outcomes that cancel each other out in predicting evening work-related remorse. Evening remorse was negatively related to next-morning vigor. By considering how employees’ remorse affects their knowledge hiding, we meaningfully extend recovery research, showing that employees’ reflections on their own actions affect their post-work recovery processes and outcomes.

AB - Past research on at-work predictors of after-work recovery mainly focused on what happened to someone at work. Yet, employees also act at work, and their own behavior and its consequences likely affect their ability to recover as well. Based on this premise, we bring together recovery research and research on moral behavior in organizations, examining the intrapersonal consequences of knowledge hiding, the intentional attempt to withhold knowledge that others have requested, for employee recovery. Specifically, we propose that knowledge hiding poses a moral dilemma, and thus has both positive (lower exhaustion) and negative (lower performance) intraindividual consequences that represent two opposing pathways to recovery in terms of work-related remorse in the evening and vigor the next morning. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a diary study across ten workdays, analyzing 517 daily reports from 152 participants. The results of multilevel path modeling suggest that day-specific knowledge hiding (in the form of playing dumb) can have both good (i.e., saving energy resources) and bad (i.e., low immediate performance) outcomes that cancel each other out in predicting evening work-related remorse. Evening remorse was negatively related to next-morning vigor. By considering how employees’ remorse affects their knowledge hiding, we meaningfully extend recovery research, showing that employees’ reflections on their own actions affect their post-work recovery processes and outcomes.

KW - Business psychology

U2 - 10.5465/AMBPP.2021.10750abstract

DO - 10.5465/AMBPP.2021.10750abstract

M3 - Conference abstract in journal

VL - 2021

JO - Academy of Management Proceedings

JF - Academy of Management Proceedings

SN - 0065-0668

IS - 1

M1 - 10750

T2 - 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management – AOM 2021

Y2 - 30 July 2021 through 3 August 2021

ER -