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This study investigates the role of personality disorders in the context of counterproductive knowledge behavior.

Data were collected through a survey administered to 120 full-time employees recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Personality disorders were measured by means of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV.

Personality disorders play an important role in the context of counterproductive knowledge behavior: employees suffering from various personality disorders are likely to hide knowledge from their fellow coworkers and engage in knowledge sabotage. Of particular importance are dependent, narcissistic and sadistic personality disorders as well as schizophrenic and delusional severe clinical syndromes. There is a need for a paradigm shift in terms of how the research community should portray those who engage in counterproductive knowledge behavior, reconsidering the underlying assumption that all of them act deliberately, consciously and rationally. Unexpectedly, most personality disorders do not facilitate knowledge hoarding.

Organizations should provide insurance coverage for the treatment of personality disorders, assist those seeking treatment, inform employees about the existence of personality disorders in the workplace and their impact on interemployee relationships, facilitate a stress-free work environment, remove social stigma that may be associated with personality disorders and, as a last resort, reassign workers suffering from extreme forms of personality disorders to tasks that require less interemployee interaction (instead of terminating them).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work represents one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the notion of personality disorders in the context of knowledge management.

Drawing on the microfoundations theory and rational choice sociology, this study aims to investigate knowledge-sharing microfoundations through knowledge sabotage behaviours in the workplace. As such, it aims to shed light on the adverse impact of knowledge sabotage on a knowledge-sharing climate.

As a quantitative deductive study, it is based on information collected from 329 employees of European companies by self-administered online surveys. Data validity and reliability has been assessed through a confirmatory factor analysis, and data analysis was carried out by using a covariance-based structural equation modelling technique.

The findings from the empirical investigation supported the baseline hypotheses of the multilevel conceptual model, which is the positive relationship between organizational trust and environmental knowledge sharing. Then, recurring to a microfoundational exploration, this study supports the mediating indirect effect of job satisfaction and knowledge sabotage in affecting knowledge sharing as a social outcome.

This study concurs to broaden knowledge-sharing awareness among scholars and practitioners, by focusing on knowledge sabotage as its most pernicious counterproductive behaviour. Furthermore, this research provides valuable guidance for the future development of research based on multilevel investigations.

This study builds on the need to explore the numerous factors that affect knowledge sharing in economic organizations, specifically focusing on knowledge sabotage. Adapting Coleman’s bathtub, the authors advance the first multilevel conceptual model used to unveil the knowledge-sharing microfoundations from the perspective of a counterproductive knowledge behaviour.

This study aims to propose and test a model explicating the antecedents and consequences of knowledge sabotage.

Data obtained from 330 employees working in the Turkish retail and telecommunication sectors were analyzed by means of the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling technique.

Co-worker knowledge sabotage is the key factor driving knowledge sabotage behavior of individual employees, followed by co-worker incivility. Interactional justice suppresses individual knowledge sabotage, while supervisor incivility does not affect it. Co-worker knowledge sabotage reduces job satisfaction of other employees, which, in turn, triggers their voluntary turnover intention. Contrary to a popular belief that perpetrators generally benefit from their organizational misbehavior, the findings indicate that knowledge saboteurs suffer from the consequences of their action because they find it mentally difficult to stay in their current organization. Employees understate their own knowledge sabotage engagement and/or overstate that of others.

Managers should realize that interactional justice is an important mechanism that can thwart knowledge sabotage behavior, promote a civil organizational culture, develop proactive approaches to reduce co-worker incivility and strive towards a zero rate of knowledge sabotage incidents in their organizations. Co-worker incivility and co-worker knowledge sabotage in the workplace are possible inhibitors of intraorganizational knowledge flows and are starting points for job dissatisfaction, which may increase workers’ turnover intention.

This study is among the first to further our knowledge on the cognitive mechanisms linking interactional justice and uncivil organizational behavior with knowledge sabotage and employee outcomes.

In recent years, counterproductive knowledge behavior (CKB) and its types have received increasing interest in knowledge management as the degree of knowledge sharing and innovation in enterprises continues to increase. A rapidly growing number of studies have shed light on the important antecedents and consequences of employees’ CKB. However, the various labels, conceptualizations and operationalizations of CKB have fragmented this body of research. This study aims to systematically integrate the effects of the six types of organizational characteristics on CKB and further draws more general conclusions based on the results of previous studies.

Based on a survey of 103 effect values responsible for 52 CKB samples, the authors use the ABC theory to explore the effects of the six types of organizational characteristics on CKB. Moderator analysis were performed to resolve inconsistencies in empirical studies and understand the contexts under which CKB has the strongest or weakest effect.

The results showed that task interdependence and a positive organizational atmosphere, in general, negatively affect employees’ CKB in the moderation analysis. In contrast, workplace discomfort, negative organizational atmosphere, internal competition and time pressure positively and partly affect employees’ CKB. The direction and magnitude of these effects were affected by emotional factors, knowledge personnel types and sample sources. Discussing the theoretical, methodological and practical implications of these findings can offer a guiding framework for future research.

Better control of employees’ CKB is not achieved by adjusting organizational characteristics alone but by combining personal characteristics and mood changes with it to balance organizational characteristics and CKB. Furthermore, the large-sample joint study integrated the conceptual definition of CKB. The multivariate data study provided more reliable conclusions and a solid theoretical foundation for CKB research areas.

This study aims to adopt the microfoundation perspective to investigate undesirable knowledge rejection by individuals in organizations in the context of counterproductive knowledge behavior (CKB). The paper advances a conceptual framework of the conditions of knowledge rejection by individuals and their respective knowledge rejection behavior types.

This study reviews the limited literature on knowledge rejection and outline a set of antecedents leading to rejecting knowledge as well as a set of different types of knowledge rejection behaviors. This study reviews and synthesizes articles on knowledge rejection from a microfoundation perspective.

The proposed conceptual framework specifies four particular conditions for knowledge rejection and outlines four respective knowledge rejection behavior types resulting from these conditions. Recipients’ lack of capacity leads to ineptitude, lack of motivation leads to dismissal of knowledge, lack of alignment with the source leads to disruption and doubts about the validity of external knowledge lead to resistance. The authors treat these behaviors as variants of CKB, as they can hinder the productive use of knowledge resources in the organization.

Further investigation of both knowledge rejection causes and the resulting knowledge rejection behaviors will ensure a more thorough grasp of the relationships between them, both in terms of the inherent nature of these relationships and their dynamics that would likely be context-sensitive. Although this study focuses only on the individual level, future studies can conduct multi-level analyses of undesirable knowledge rejection, including team and organizational levels.

Practitioners can use the framework to identify, diagnose and manage knowledge rejection more meaningfully, accurately and purposefully in their organizations. This study offers valuable insights for managers facing undesirable knowledge rejection, and provides recommendations on how to address this behavior, improves the constructive use of knowledge resources and the effectiveness of knowledge processes in their organizations. Managers should be aware of undesirable knowledge rejection, its potential cost or concealed cost to their organizations and develop strategies to reduce or prevent it.

The paper contributes toward understanding the relatively neglected topic of knowledge rejection in the knowledge management field and offers a new way of conceptualizing the phenomenon. It proposes that there are two types of knowledge rejection – undesirable and desirable – and advances a more precise and up-to-date definition of undesirable knowledge rejection. Responding to calls for more research on CKBs, the study examines a hitherto unresearched behavior of knowledge rejection and provides a foundation for further study in this area.

This study aims to investigate the negative interpersonal antecedents, emotional mediators and boundary conditions of knowledge sabotage behavior.

The authors collected data from 275 Chinese employees using convenience sampling and snowball sampling across three stages. Subsequently, the authors used both hierarchical regression and bootstrap methods to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results confirmed that workplace ostracism has positive effects on employee knowledge sabotage behavior both directly and via employee anger. In addition, the authors found that employee bottom-line mentality (BLM) moderates not only the direct effect of workplace ostracism on employee anger but also the indirect effect of employee anger in this context. Employee conscientiousness moderates only the direct effect of workplace ostracism on employee anger and does not moderate the indirect effect.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study not only explores the influence of workplace ostracism on employee knowledge sabotage behavior for the first time but also elucidates the underlying emotional mechanisms (anger) and boundary conditions (employee BLM and conscientiousness) by which workplace ostracism influences employee knowledge sabotage behavior, thus deepening the understanding of how knowledge sabotage emerges in organizations.

The purpose of this Real Impact Research Article is to empirically explore one of the most controversial and elusive concepts in knowledge management research – practical wisdom. It develops a 10-dimensional practical wisdom construct and tests it within the nomological network of counterproductive and productive knowledge behavior.

A survey instrument was created based on the extant literature. A model was developed and tested by means of Partial Least Squares with data obtained from 200 experienced employees recruited from CloudResearch Connect crowdsourcing platform.

Practical wisdom is a multidimensional construct that may be operationalized and measured like other well-established knowledge management concepts. Practical wisdom guides employee counterproductive and productive knowledge behavior: it suppresses knowledge sabotage and knowledge hiding (whether general, evasive, playing dumb, rationalized or bullying) and promotes knowledge sharing. While all proposed dimensions contribute to employee practical wisdom, particularly salient are subject matter expertise, moral purpose in decision-making, self-reflection in the workplace and external reflection in the workplace. Unexpectedly, practical wisdom facilitates knowledge hoarding instead of reducing it.

Managers should realize that possessing practical wisdom is not limited to a group of select, high-level executives. Organizations may administer the practical wisdom questionnaire presented in this study to their workers to identify those who score the lowest, and invest in employee training programs that focus on the development of those attributes pertaining to the practical wisdom dimensions.

The concept of practical wisdom is a controversial topic that has both detractors and supporters. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first large-scale empirical study of practical wisdom in the knowledge management domain.

Bullying knowledge hiding has been recently identified as a manifestation of knowledge hiding behavior. As a relatively new concept, it is still underexplored. Previous research has focused on the antecedents of bullying hiding. However, there is a lack of research on the negative consequences that bullying hiding may have on employees. This study aims to uncover the effects of supervisor bullying hiding on employees knowledge behavior. The study also aims to examine the moderating effect of power values and the mediating effect of job stress.

Data were gathered in two waves from 444 employees with higher education in Poland. Data collection was conducted in July and August 2022. A general linear model mediation analysis with jamovi Advanced Mediation Models software was used to examine the hypotheses.

The results indicate that bullying knowledge hiding by supervisors triggers subordinates’ job stress and aggression in the form of bullying knowledge hiding toward co-workers. Contrary to expectations, job stress does not mediate the relationship between supervisor bullying hiding and subordinate bullying hiding toward co-workers. Power-dominance values, contrary to power-resources values, moderate the above relationship.

As bullying hiding has significant potential to spread among organizational members, managers seeking to reduce it should check the personal values of job applicants and employees.

Based on the behavioral contagion and frustration–aggression–displacement theories, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the relationships between supervisor bullying hiding, job stress, power values and subordinate bullying hiding toward co-workers.

Software industry, one of the most knowledge-intensive industries, in Brazil has increased opportunities of evolution. Its competitive advantage relies on the efficiency of the organizational knowledge management, but the knowledge hiding, its antecedents and moderators are still understudied. This study seeks to identify a new antecedent to knowledge hiding, such the occupational stress.

The author focused on the moderating effect of social self-efficacy and emotional self-efficacy in the relationship between occupational stress and knowledge hiding in software industry in Brazil. The author collected data from 189 software industry Brazilian employees in 30 firms using a time-lagged research design.

This study demonstrated that employees with high levels of social self-efficacy (SSE) and emotional self-efficacy (ESE) or both have more tendency to engage on knowledge hiding behavior comparing to their colleagues with low SSE and ESE. This study showed that SSE and ESE related positively to rationalized hiding, evasive hiding and playing dumb.

The author’s main contribution relies on the finding related to the joint role of social self-efficacy and emotional self-efficacy on engaging employees under occupational stress conditions in knowledge hiding behaviors.

This study aims to seek to understand counterproductive knowledge behaviour (CKB) in higher education institutions (HEIs) by integrating knowledge hiding (KHi) and lack of knowledge sharing (LKS).

The current research uses a hybrid conceptual review combining the bibliometric study and conceptual review of 47 articles. The bibliometric analysis aimed to identify research maps, and the conceptual review sought to understand the current development of research fields.

The bibliometric analysis highlights essential summaries, such as the pioneering authors, seminal papers and conceptual maps. However, knowledge hoarding as a dimension of LKS appears in the niche theme. The conceptual analysis indicates three groups of factors contributing to KHi and LKS. Moreover, the study highlights the causal relation between both KHi as well as LKS and faculty member performance while proposing remedies derived from integrating the social exchange theory (SET) and conservation of resource (COR) theory.

The present study provides an integrated image of KHi and LKS in the HEI context, as well as its potential remedies by integrating SET and COR. The basis of this study is a literature review; thus, future studies are recommended to empirically explore the integration of KHi and LKS within the HEI context.

This research provides an overview for HEI policymakers to re-examine the critical role of institutional research as one of the considerations for evaluating and developing policies. Specifically, policymakers can reflect on all policy directions to determine whether there are any symptoms of CKB in the institutions. Moreover, stakeholders can find out the reason behind the non-optimal performance of faculty members regarding CKB and any mitigating factors.

Understanding CKB is crucial in managing HEI. This research provides a comprehensive image of KHi and LKS within HEI, especially in a collectivist culture.