Obligations and feeling envied: a study of workplace status and knowledge hiding
Journal of Managerial Psychology
ISSN: 0268-3946
Article publication date: 20 May 2020
Issue publication date: 25 August 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Status is a key in the workplace. Although status is desirable when it has positive outcomes, little is known about its negative consequences. This study investigates both the bright and dark sides of workplace status in terms of employees' feelings and behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 227 employees in various industries at two time points.
Findings
Workplace status is associated with knowledge hiding through two opposing mechanisms: felt obligation to share knowledge and feeling envied.
Practical implications
Managers may need to direct high-status employees' attention to felt obligation to share knowledge and shift their attention away from feeling envied.
Originality/value
Our study enriches the understanding of workplace status by theoretically proposing and empirically testing a comprehensive framework that simultaneously considers its positive and negative impacts.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the Asia Academy of Management Conference in 2019.This research is partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 71872135) and China’s Ministry of Education Funds for Humanities and Social Science (Grant number: 17YJA630062).
Citation
Liu, Y., Zhu, J.N.Y. and Lam, L.W. (2020), "Obligations and feeling envied: a study of workplace status and knowledge hiding", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 35 No. 5, pp. 347-359. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-05-2019-0276
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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