AI Insight
This study examined how authoritarian leadership in Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises influences knowledge hiding behaviors among 363 employees. The research found that authoritarian leadership increases knowledge hiding (including playing dumb, evasive hiding, rationalized hiding, and procrastination) through a serial mediation process involving hindrance stressors and job insecurity. The findings support that leadership style impacts knowledge sharing through stress-based psychological mechanisms in hierarchical organizational contexts.
Why it matters
Understanding these dynamics helps organizations recognize how authoritarian management practices can inadvertently create barriers to knowledge sharing and organizational learning. The findings suggest that reducing authoritarian leadership approaches and addressing employee stressors and job insecurity could foster more transparent knowledge exchanges and improve organizational adaptability.
Understand the Science
IntroductionIn an increasingly knowledge driven economy, understanding how authoritarian leadership shapes employees’ knowledge hiding is critical for sustaining organizational learning and adaptability. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and the Job Demands Resources model, this study examines how authoritarian leadership influences employees’ knowledge hiding behavior through hindrance stressors and job insecurity among employees in small and medium sized enterprises in China. More importantly, this study conceptualizes knowledge hiding as a four dimensional construct encompassing playing dumb, evasive hiding, rationalized hiding, and procrastination.MethodsDrawing on a sample of 363 full-time employees, we tested a serial mediation model, in which authoritarian leadership increased knowledge hiding through its effects on hindrance stressors and job insecurity.ResultsAll the proposed hypotheses received empirical support. The findings demonstrate that authoritarian leadership affects knowledge hiding through interpersonal dynamics and a cascade of stress-based psychological mechanisms.DiscussionThis study highlights the contextual relevance of small- and medium-sized enterprises in China, where hierarchical structures, resource scarcity, and cultural norms amplify employees’ sensitivity to leadership pressure. The practical implications of reducing knowledge hiding and fostering transparent knowledge exchanges are also discussed.