Informational justice and employee knowledge hiding behaviours: Mediation of organizational identification and moderation of justice sensitivity

Guang Xu; Ying Huang; Songshan Sam Huang

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14697

Informational justice and employee knowledge hiding behaviours: Mediation of organizational identification and moderation of justice sensitivity

Heliyon. 2023 Mar 23;9(4):e14697. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14697. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Guang Xu¹, Ying Huang¹, Songshan Sam Huang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Management, Harbin Normal University, Harbin, China.
² School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, 6027, Australia.

Abstract

Purpose: - This study examines the effects of information justice on employee knowledge hiding via the mediation of organizational identification, and further investigates how justice sensitivity moderates these effects.Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a questionnaire survey with 250 working individuals in China. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the construct measurement. Regression analyses were then used for hypothesis tests.

Findings: Informational justice is negatively associated with evasive hiding and playing dumb behaviours but positively associated with rationalized hiding behaviour through the mediation of organizational identification. In addition, justice sensitivity moderates the relationship between informational justice and organizational identification.

Practical implications: Managers should deliver informational justice in their workplace interactions with subordinates in counteracting workplace knowledge hiding, and pay special attention to employees with higher justice sensitivity who possess critical knowledge to the organization.

Originality/value: This study identified informational justice in the leader-follower exchange domain as a predictor of employee knowledge hiding, and examined specific mediation mechanism and boundary effects.

Keywords: Informational justice; Justice sensitivity; Knowledge hiding; Organizational identification.