Double-edged sword effects of job design on knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding : a social exchange theory perspective

Abstract

Promoting knowledge sharing and mitigating knowledge hiding between employees are vital challenges to organizational innovation, performance, and knowledge management. However, empirical research on how knowledge sharing can be fostered and knowledge hiding can be mitigated is underdeveloped. Using social exchange theory as an underlying theoretical perspective, this study investigates whether and how job design matters to knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding because of the expected or perceived benefits and costs of knowledge exchange.

This study examines the following important job-design characteristics: job autonomy, job complexity, skill variety, initiated job interdependence, and received job interdependence. It operationalizes the expected benefits of knowledge exchange into financial benefits vs. non-financial benefits, while the expected costs of knowledge exchange into direct costs vs. opportunity costs.

This study collected data through a survey from 332 knowledge workers working in various knowledge-intensive industries in Pakistan. It analysed the data using partial least squares modelling.

The results reveal that the expected financial benefits and non-financial benefits (involving intrinsic motivation and expected non-financial rewards) promote knowledge sharing. In contrast, the expected costs of knowledge exchange – direct and opportunity costs – do not relate to knowledge sharing. On the other hand, the expected benefits and costs relate to knowledge hiding differentially. The expected non-financial benefits discourage knowledge hiding, whereas the financial benefits and direct and opportunity costs encourage knowledge hiding.

The results reveal that the received job interdependence is the most promising job-design characteristic amongst the examined ones to promote knowledge sharing, while the skill variety is the most promising one to mitigate knowledge hiding. Skill variety in job design is the most promising and effective job-design characteristic for managing knowledge sharing and hiding concurrently. Skill variety can promote the non-financial benefits and reduce the costs and financial benefits, mitigating knowledge hiding and promoting knowledge sharing. In contrast, other job-design characteristics (job autonomy, job complexity, and job interdependence) have double-edged sword effects on the perceived benefits and costs, making complex impacts on knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding. In this vein, received job interdependence fosters the non-financial benefits. However, it fosters the expectations for the financial benefits and costs, on the other hand, to encourage knowledge hiding and decrease knowledge sharing. Other job-design characteristics encourage knowledge hiding and discourage knowledge sharing by fostering the financial benefits and direct and opportunity costs and decreasing or not affecting the non-financial benefits.

The findings caution the managers and the scholarly community that not all job-design characteristics are promising and equally effective in managing knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding. They can act as the double-edged swords. On the one hand, they might seem promising because of their positive effects on the non-financial benefits; however, on the other hand, they can increase the financial benefits and costs. Therefore, the managers should identify the most promising job-design characteristic(s) for managing knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding. The current study advances the social exchange theory as the comprehensive frame of reference that can subsume other theories of knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding in its cost-benefit framework.