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Knowledge Management Research & Practice
ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tkmr20
Linking knowledge hiding to extra-role
performance:The role of emotional exhaustion
and political skills
Noor Ul Ain , Muhammad Umer Azeem , Maqbool Hussain Sial &
Muhammad Aurangzaib Arshad
To cite this article: Noor Ul Ain , Muhammad Umer Azeem , Maqbool Hussain Sial & Muhammad
Aurangzaib Arshad (2021): Linking knowledge hiding to extra-role performance:The role of
emotional exhaustion and political skills, Knowledge Management Research & Practice, DOI:
10.1080/14778238.2021.1876536
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14778238.2021.1876536
Published online: 04 Feb 2021.
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ARTICLE
Linking knowledge hiding to extra-role performance:The role of emotional
exhaustion and political skills
Noor Ul Ain
a
, Muhammad Umer Azeem
a
, Maqbool Hussain Sial
b
and Muhammad Aurangzaib Arshad
c
a
School of Business and Economics, University of Management & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan;
b
Department of Quantitative Methods,
Director Center for Graduate Research, School of Business and Economics, University of Management & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan;
c
Department of Marketing and Compliance, Mondelink Ltd., London, UK
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the relationship between knowledge hiding and extra-role perfor-
mance, while considering the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and moderating role
of political skill. Results based on multi-source, two-wave time-lagged data from 428 pair
respondents (i.e. employees and their supervisors) show that employees’ persistent exposure
to knowledge hiding episodes reduces their extra-role performance, because they become
emotionally exhausted. Employees’ political skills buer this harmful eect of knowledge
hiding on emotional exhaustion though, such that this eect is mitigated when political skills
are high. For organisations, this study accordingly identies a key mechanism through which
knowledge hiding can undermine the voluntary behaviours at workplace; and this mechanism
is less forceful for employees with high political skills. Several practical implications are also
elaborated.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 16 December 2019
Accepted 9 January 2021
KEYWORDS
Knowledge hiding;
emotional exhaustion; extra-
role performance; political
skills; conservation of
resource theory
1. Introduction
In today’s economy, knowledge is the most vital stra-
tegic resource for survival of organisations and pro-
viding competitive advantage in turbulent business
environment (Muqadas et al., 2017; Nonaka et al.,
2014). Extant research revealed that effective transfer
of knowledge is a key determinant of operational
efficiency, organisation performance, team effective-
ness, innovation capabilities, employee creativity and
individual performance (Inkinen, 2016; Park & Kim,
2015). But, despite many efforts to foster knowledge
sharing (i.e. creation of knowledge management cul-
ture, building trust among employees, improving
employee participation, use of rewards for knowledge
sharing); employees are still not sharing knowledge as
desired (Saifi, Dillon & McQueen, 2016; Connelly &
Zweig, 2015). Worse than that, few employees are
consciously hiding knowledge – deliberate concealing
or withholding of ideas, know-how, and task informa-
tion – from their colleagues (Connelly et al., 2012; Pan
et al., 2018). Strangely, a plethora of earlier research
has focused on promotion of desirable activities such
as knowledge sharing (Manhart & Thalmann, 2015),
however, at the expense of understanding counterpro-
ductive knowledge behaviour such as knowledge hid-
ing (Serenko & Bontis, 2016). Specifically, it is evident
that one of the most crucial factors in the failure of
various knowledge management projects is knowledge
hiding (Martinsons et al., 2017). But, limited studies
have examined the influence of knowledge hiding on
positive work outcomes such as extra-role job perfor-
mance, particularly the moderating and mediating
mechanisms underlying this relationship (Serenko &
Bontis, 2016).
Knowledge hiding (KH) is a kind of knowledge
withholding behaviour in which an individual will
put less effort to contribute towards knowledge of
the organisation and intentionally conceal the
requested knowledge from others (Connelly et al.,
2012). In contemporary organisations, knowledge hid-
ing has been observed frequently and its consequences
may sometimes be devastating (Connelly & Zweig,
2015). However, to date, relatively little research is
being reported regarding the relevant negative beha-
vioural outcomes that might arise from this important
form of workplace adversity (Connelly & Zweig, 2015;
Fong et al., 2018). The lack of research give rise to the
need of examining the impact of such knowledge hid-
ing behaviour to provide a more exhaustive under-
standing of how and when such detrimental
consequences of knowledge hiding are likely to occur.
Extra-role performance consists of activities that
contribute to the psychological and social core of the
organisation, and that are not required by formal job
descriptions (Organ, 1988; Spanouli & Hofmans,
2016). Extra-role performance encompasses discre-
tionary behaviours that are neither rewarded nor soli-
cited, but are essential for effective functioning of
organisations (Podsakoff et al., 2009). These
CONTACT Noor ul Ain noorulain_13@yahoo.com PhD Scholar, School of Business and Economics (SBE), University of Management & Technology,
C-II, Johar Town, Lahore, Pakistan.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH & PRACTICE
https://doi.org/10.1080/14778238.2021.1876536
© Operational Research Society 2021.
discretionary behaviours have direct influence on
organisation’s outcomes and are essential interpreters
of individual and organisational effectiveness and ser-
vice innovation in turbulent circumstances (Alnaimi
& Rjoub, 2019; Fong et al., 2018). Furthermore, these
extra-role behaviours benefit organisations through
high employee morale and performance, improved
organisational effectiveness, decreased employee with-
drawal, and overall improved service performance of
the organisation (Chang et al., 2009). However, such
discretionary work efforts consume significant energy
resources (Podsakoff et al., 2009), so investigating how
and when energy-depleting knowledge hiding condi-
tions might turn employees away from extra-role per-
formance is critical for both scholars and practitioners.
Drawing from conservation of resource theory (COR)
(Hobfoll, 2001), we posit that targets facing knowledge
hiding episodes are likely to undergo emotional
exhaustion (triggered due to resource depletion).
This emotional exhaustion then functions as a key
mechanism through which knowledge hiding inhibit
extra-role performance of target employee. As pre-
dicted by COR, the depleted resources due to stressful
situations can be compensated for by personal
resources, we also predict that employees’ political
skills should mitigate the harmful effects of knowledge
hiding on emotional exhaustion (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001).
The current study is contributing to the existing
literature in several ways. First, this study conceptua-
lises knowledge hiding as a workplace interpersonal
stressor and utilises a stress perspective for unpacking
the black box of knowledge hiding – extra-role perfor-
mance relationship. Specifically, it examined the
underlying psychological mechanism of KH and extra-
role performance through emotional exhaustion.
Second, this study inspects the buffering role of poli-
tical skill on the relationship between KH and emo-
tional exhaustion. In particular, we explore the
boundary condition under which knowledge hiding
may be less or more pertinent to emotional exhaus-
tion; thus extending the research on moderating influ-
ence of political skill, a hitherto overlooked factor
which may reduce the harmful effects of KH. In this
way, it provides a more nuanced view of how and
when knowledge hiding can lead to reduced extra-
role performance of target employee by developing
a moderated mediation model. Finally, the existing
studies which examined the consequences of knowl-
edge hiding have explored the underlying mechanisms
and boundary condition of this phenomenon through
the lens of social exchange theory (Bogilović et al.,
2017; Fong et al., 2018; Serenko & Bontis, 2016), psy-
chological ownership theory (Pierce et al., 2001) and
norms of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960). This study
extends this growing body of literature on KH and
extra-role performance linkage from targets’ perspec-
tive through the lens of conservation of resource the-
ory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001), thus extending the previous
application of COR theory to the context of KH. Figure
1 depicts the relationships in the proposed model.
2. Theoretical background
2.1. Knowledge hiding and emotional exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion is defined as “feelings of being
overextended and depleted of one’s emotional and
physical resources” (Maslach et al., 2008). Emotional
exhaustion is triggered during workplace interperso-
nal interactions when an individual’s emotional
demands exceed the coping capacity of an individual
(Xu et al., 2018). A synthesis of the current literature
on emotional exhaustion suggests that it leads to nega-
tive job outcomes such as reduced organisation com-
mitment, decreased job performance, lower level of
organisation citizenship behaviours and high turnover
intentions (De Clercq et al., 2018; Kusluvan et al.,
2010; Tourigny et al., 2013). The link between knowl-
edge hiding and emotional exhaustion can be
described under the lens of conservation of resource
theory (Hobfoll, 2001). The COR theory claims that
people possess numerous valued resources which they
strive to attain, maintain, and preserve to effectively
achieve their goals (Hobfoll, 2001).
Target’s Performance
Knowledge
Hiding
Political Skill
Emotional
Exhaustion
Extra-Role
Performance
Target’s Perception of KH
H1 (+)
H5
H3 (–)
H2 (–)
H4
Figure 1. Research model Note: H6 (moderated-mediation).
2N. U. AIN ET AL.
COR theory, regarding the stressor–strain relation-
ship, further proposes that valued resources are
depleted due to negative and stressful workplace situa-
tions. This resource depletion hinders the capacity of
individuals to cope with stressful circumstances in
future, and limits their ability to meet the performance
expectations and also inhibits their ability to accumu-
late additional resources to expand their existing
resource pool (Hobfoll, 2001), ultimately triggering
a state of emotional exhaustion (Chen & Cunradi,
2008). When faced with knowledge hiding, the KH
targets undergo the depletion of valued personal
resources (i.e. emotional, social support and interper-
sonal relationship resources) (Freedy & Hobfoll,
2017), all of which are essential for efficient function-
ing in the workplace (Zhao et al., 2016). We proposed
that, when faced with knowledge hiding, the KH tar-
gets are likely to undergo emotional exhaustion for the
following reasons. First, the KH targets may experi-
ence mental fatigue and low energy due to sense of
rejection to be initiated by negative interpersonal
workplace interactions such as knowledge hiding.
Second, loss of valued resources (i.e. social support
and interpersonal relationships) is sufficient to gener-
ate stress in the KH targets by triggering negative
emotions and sense of devaluation and rejection by
the perpetrators (Penhaligon et al., 2013).
Additionally, mental fatigue and stress can also be
accumulated when the investment of remaining
resources is made by the target employees in an
attempt to build healthy interpersonal relations with
others at workplace but are not getting the desired
response (Freedy & Hobfoll, 2017). Thus, eventually
deplete and exhaust the emotional resource reservoirs
of KH targets and they are likely to experience mental
fatigue and psychological stress in the form of emo-
tional exhaustion (Tepper, 2001). Therefore, we
hypothesised the following:
H 1: Knowledge hiding is positively related to target’s
emotional exhaustion.
2.2. Emotional exhaustion and extra-role
performance
As discussed earlier, KH as an interpersonal stressor
and traumatic experience contains the inherent loss of
valued resources such as social support from co-
workers along with feelings of devaluation and frus-
tration, leading to perceptions of rejection (Connelly
& Zweig, 2015), accompanied by a sense of reduced
personal control and self-worth (Kluemper, 2018).
When personal resources are insufficient to cope
with difficulties arising at work, it may lead towards
emotional exhaustion (Reb et al., 2017). In turn, emo-
tional exhaustion is known to reduce extra-role per-
formance of target employees (Tourigny et al., 2013).
Extra-role performance is mostly triggered by differ-
ent emotional states (Spector & Fox, 2010) and it
consists of all the acts that facilitate in relationship
building and mending at work, taking initiatives for
problem solving, encouraging consideration and
cooperation of others, putting extra efforts for others
due to sensitivity and compassion (McCarthy et al.,
2016). The resultant emotional exhaustion causes the
work capacities of target employees to be overbur-
dened and motivates KH targets to retaliate to con-
serve the remaining resources by engaging in coping
withdrawing behaviours (i.e. reduced efforts) and to
restore their sense of control and self-esteem (Pooja
et al., 2016), thereby, such targets intentionally with-
hold discretionary behaviours (i.e. a reduction in
extra-role performance) (Connelly & Zweig, 2015;
Spanouli & Hofmans, 2016). We accordingly proposed
that:
H 2: Emotional exhaustion is negatively related to
extra-role performance
2.3. Knowledge hiding and extra-role
performance
As a relatively low-base-rate event, KH may result in
destructive consequences for individuals and for orga-
nisations as well (Connelly & Zweig, 2015). While the
organisational costs associated with KH have been
usually estimated in financial terms, but the costs
that are borne by the targets of KH include various
negative psychological and behavioural consequences
(Škerlavaj et al., 2018). For example, KH harms the
creativity of knowledge hider by triggering a distrust
loop (Černe et al., 2014; Rhee & Choi, 2017) and hurt
interpersonal relationships between knowledge hider
and seeker (Connelly & Zweig, 2015). Knowledge hid-
ing also undermines individual and organisational
performance due to its destructive effects on interac-
tion effectiveness and process capabilities of a unit
(Evans et al., 2015), increases the voluntary turnover
intentions of KH targets (Serenko & Bontis, 2016) and
results in deleterious spiral of retaliation (Pan et al.,
2018). Such unfavourable interpersonal experiences
elicit negative affective reactions in the targets
(Penhaligon et al., 2013) and their behavioural
responses (i.e. reduced job performance) may be
intended to restore the feelings of justice (Serenko &
Bontis, 2016). Supportive work environment and
trustworthy interpersonal relations lead the employees
to reciprocate extra-role work behaviours (Klotz et al.,
2018). Thus, KH being a negative interpersonal
experience might limit the propensity of target
employees to actively engage in extra-role work beha-
viours as a form of retaliation and as a way to conserve
further resource loss (De Clercq et al., 2018; Connelly
& Zweig, 2015). Therefore, it is hypothesised that:
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH & PRACTICE 3
H 3: Knowledge hiding is negatively related to extra-
role performance
2.4. Mediating role of emotional exhaustion
In line with above arguments, a mediating influence of
emotional exhaustion is proposed, such that target’s
perception of knowledge hiding reduces the extra-role
performance through emotional exhaustion. The indi-
viduals facing knowledge hiding episodes typically
deal with their subsequent negative feelings by
decreasing investments in the relationships at the
interpersonal and organisational levels (Schaufeli,
2006), thereby making them able to preserve their
feelings of personal control and self-worth
(Kluemper, 2018), which ultimately engage the KH
targets in defensive behaviours to conserve the leftover
resources by inhibiting their discretionary work beha-
viours (Freedy & Hobfoll, 2017). Thus, knowledge
hiding negatively relates to extra-role performance to
avoid further resource depletion and as a way to pro-
tect themselves against the self-depreciating thoughts
such as feelings of being rejected and injustice
(Connelly & Zweig, 2015). Previous research revealed
emotional exhaustion as a mediator in the relationship
between the destructive effects of adverse workplace
situations (e.g., abusive supervision, organisational
justice, and workplace ostracism) and work outcomes
(e.g., knowledge sharing, interpersonal deviance, orga-
nisational commitment and turnover intentions)
(Cole et al., 2010; Jahanzeb & Fatima, 2017; Lee
et al., 2018). As an extension, we predict emotional
exhaustion as a mediator in the relationship between
knowledge hiding and extra-role performance.
Therefore, we hypothesised the following:
H 4: Target’s emotional exhaustion mediates the rela-
tionship between knowledge hiding and extra-
role performance.
2.5. Moderating role of political skill
Political skill refers to “an individual’s ability to effec-
tually understand others at workplace and then use
that knowledge to persuade others so that they act in
ways to accomplish individual and organizational
goals” (Ferris et al., 2005). Individuals with political
skill have an acute understanding of the work envir-
onment. In addition, they are better able to manage
diverse networks and build relationships by having
a certain convincing style that is enough to make
them effective influencer at workplace (Grosser et al.,
2018). Politically skilled individuals adapt their beha-
viours according to a particular situation and context,
along with maintenance of genuineness and authenti-
city (Treadway et al., 2017).
According to COR theory, political skill is
a personal ability that acts as a critical personal
resource to influence the ways KH targets will react
to resource loss (Astakhova, 2015). The fundamental
purpose of using political skill in the resource conser-
vation process is to prevent further resource loss and
to develop more personal resources to achieve perso-
nal goals (Zhao & Xia, 2017). In particular, when faced
with knowledge hiding, the targets possessing political
skill may feel that their social resources can be
increased by effectually building social network with
other co-workers; thereby it might reduce the ten-
dency of their further exclusion and enhance their self-
esteem and inclusionary status (Dudenhöffer &
Dormann, 2015). Therefore, we expect that in the
face of knowledge hiding, the targets having high
political skill ability are better able to overcome their
emotional exhaustion as compared to those having
low levels of political skill. The politically skilled KH
targets can do so by decreasing the further exclusion
through the use of pro-social or extra work beha-
viours, interpersonal facilitation and beneficial coali-
tions, instead of engaging in retaliation by adopting
anti-social behaviours (Kolodinsky et al., 2007).
Accordingly, we hypothesised that:
H 5: Political skill moderates the positive relationship
between knowledge hiding and emotional exhaustion
such that the relationship is weaker at higher level of
political skills.
The current study also proposes a moderated med-
iation model (Preacher et al., 2007), such that high
level of political skill may diminish the negative rela-
tionship between knowledge hiding and extra-role
performance as mediated by emotional exhaustion.
Specifically, the individuals having certain personal
skills may be more capable of enduring in environ-
ments that consist of negative interpersonal stressors
such as knowledge hiding and the resultant feelings of
exclusion, devaluation and eventually exhaustion
(Penhaligon et al., 2013; Smart Richman & Leary,
2009). The knowledge hiding targets, having high
political skill ability, are expected to undergo less
resource depletion as compared to their counterparts
having low levels of political skill due to their high
tendency to build and extend the social network to
increase social resources, thus enhancing their self-
esteem, meaningful belongingness and inclusionary
status and maintain their resource reservoirs for future
(Grosser et al., 2018; Hobfoll, 1989). Accordingly, we
anticipate that political skill conditionally impacts the
strength of the indirect effect of knowledge hiding on
extra-role performance i.e. the indirect linkage would
be weaker for those knowledge hiding targets posses-
sing high political skills.
H 6: The strength of relationship between knowledge
hiding and extra-role performance mediated by
4N. U. AIN ET AL.
emotional exhaustion will be moderated by political
skill, such that the mediated relationship is weaker for
employees having higher level of political skill than
lower.
3. Methods
3.1. Data collection and Sample
The data was collected from the employees working in
service sector organisations operating in IT and edu-
cation sector of Pakistan. These sectors are fundamen-
tally meant to share ideas and knowledge to maintain
effective customer relationships through improved
service quality and innovation (Javed et al., 2017;
Zhao et al., 2016). Further, the educational institutions
are the hubs of knowledge creation and dissemination
towards the development of knowledge economy
(Malik et al., 2018). Therefore, it seemed quite perti-
nent to study the effects of knowledge hiding beha-
viours in these sectors. Several previous studies
conducted in these sectors reported that KH is
a pervasive phenomenon in service organisations
that damages the process of knowledge transfer and
has negative influence on both employees as well as
organisations (Connelly et al., 2012; Fong et al., 2018;
Malik et al., 2018). The Pakistani service sector is
contributing about 56% in GDP; therefore, the preva-
lence of KH can cause serious economic losses to the
service organisations along with negative behavioural
and psychological employee outcomes. Therefore, for
our empirical study, Pakistan offers a highly relevant
setting that also enables us to address calls to expand
OCB studies to international levels (Chan & Snape,
2013; Rurkkhum & Bartlett, 2012; Vigoda-Gadot &
Grimland, 2008).
Given that the data was collected through conveni-
ent sampling, it is possible that selected organisations
might be less representative of entire economy of
Pakistan, but the current study has tried to overcome
the issue of representativeness by including multiple
organisations and ensuring a broad selection of parti-
cipants (i.e. different ages, genders, educational and
industrial backgrounds) to increase external validity of
research findings. Further, various recent studies
undertaken in the context of Pakistan has used this
similar approach (Abbas & Raja, 2015; De Clercq et al.,
2019; Hamza, 2018; Jahanzeb et al., 2020). A two-wave
time lag design, two months apart, was used to reduce
the potential biases such as common method variance
(MacKenzie & Podsakoff, 2012; Peng, 2013; Zhao &
Xia, 2017). Moreover, the method bias was also
addressed by gathering data from independent multi-
ple sources (i.e. self and supervisors) for predictor and
criterion variables. The data for knowledge hiding,
emotional exhaustion, and political skill were self-
reported and the extra-role performance were
reported by target’s supervisor. The respondents
were full-time employees working in service organisa-
tions located in Punjab and the questionnaires were
handed-over to the respondents after clarifying the
research purpose and the usefulness of their authentic
responses. For this purpose, a cover letter briefly
explaining the study purpose was attached along with
a return envelope. The participation of each respon-
dent was absolutely voluntary and they were assured
regarding the confidentiality of their responses. The
survey questions were in English because it is the
official language in Pakistani organisations.
At T1, participants were asked to report demo-
graphics (i.e. gender, age, experience, educational
background and industry), knowledge hiding percep-
tions and political skill. At this stage, we distributed
800 questionnaires and received 560 usable question-
naires, representing 70% response rate. Two months
later, those 560 respondents were asked again to self-
report the questions regarding emotional exhaustion
and their 126 respective supervisors were asked to rate
their subordinate’s extra-role job performance.
Finally, 85 supervisors rated for their subordinate’s
performance, thus comprising 428 matched responses
of both employees and their respective supervisors,
reflecting an overall response rate of 54%. The final
sample consists of 59% males and 41% females.
3.2. Measures
All of the measures were adopted from previous
research and a 5-point Likert scale was used to assess
the constructs. Following scales were used:
3.2.1. Knowledge hiding
Knowledge hiding was measured using 12-item scale
of knowledge hiding developed by Connelly et al.
(2012). The scale measures all three dimensions (eva-
sive hiding, rationalised hiding and playing dumb) of
knowledge hiding through four items for each dimen-
sion. Sample items were, “Your co-worker agreed to
help you but never really intended to”, “Pretended that
s/he did not know the information” and “Explained
that s/he would like to tell you, but was not supposed
to”. Following Connelly et al. (2012), critical incident
technique was used to instruct the participants. They
were asked to “Recall a recent incident in which you
requested information/knowledge from your co-
worker and s/he didn’t share with you the required
information/knowledge. For example, you asked
someone about the needed information and he only
given the small part of the knowledge you asked for
and that information didn’t help you in learning or
solving your problem, or s/he declined to tell some-
thing simply by being ignorant about the needed
information” (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.85).
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH & PRACTICE 5
3.2.2. Emotional Exhaustion
To measure emotional exhaustion, Maslach and
Jackson (1981) 9-items scale was used. Sample items
were, “I feel emotionally drained from my work” and
“I feel used up at the end of the workday” (Cronbach’s
alpha = 0.79).
3.2.3. Political Skill
In line with previous work of Vigoda-Gadot and
Meisler (2010), political skill was assessed using
8-items shortened version of political skill inventory,
drawn from Ferris et al. (2005). The sample items
contain, “I spend a lot of time and effort at work
networking with others” and “At work, I know a lot
of important people and I am well connected”
(Cronbach’s alpha = 0.70).
3.2.4. Extra-Role Performance
Extra-role performance was assessed by Lee and Allen
(2002) sixteen-item scale. Sample items included,
“Help others who have been absent” and “Willingly
give time to help others who have work related pro-
blems” (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.71).
3.2.5. Control Variables
Previous researches have demonstrated that individual
demographics (i.e. age, gender, job tenure and educa-
tion) may influence knowledge-related behaviours of
employees (e.g., Connelly et al., 2012; Fong et al., 2018;
Huo et al., 2016; Peng, 2013; Zhao et al., 2016).
Therefore, we measured these demographics as it
was necessary to control for variables that might
potentially influence focal constructs of the study.
4. Results
Table 1 presents the reliability estimates (α coefficient),
descriptive statistics, and correlations for the study vari-
ables. The values of Cronbach’s alpha for all variables
were above the benchmark of .70 (Nunnally., 1978),
hence confirming the reliability of study constructs.
Although, in order to measure criterion and predictor
variables, independent sources of data (i.e. self and super-
visors) were used. But still, the measurement validity of
study constructs was established through a series of CFAs
using Amos 23.0 software. Following previous studies
(i.e. Anderson & Gerbing, 1992; Naseer et al., 2016),
three-factor and two-factor models for each possible
pairing of variables were compared to single-factor
model. In each case, a better fit was achieved by the
multiple-factor model as compared to the single-factor
model, which clearly confirms the distinctiveness of focal
variables of the study. The results of fit indices for knowl-
edge hiding, emotional exhaustion, political skill, and
extra-role performance are shown in Table 2. The relative
fit indices (i.e. GFI, RMSEA, CFI, SRMR) were analysed.
The criteria of relative indices have been recommended
by Hu and Bentler (1999), where χ2/df should be in the
range 0–3, SRMR and RMSEA values should be ≤ .08.
The values of Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) and
Comparative Fit Index (CFI) must be 0.9 or greater.
For the purpose of hypotheses testing, the
PROCESS macro for SPSS developed by Hayes
(2013) was used. Model 4 was used to test the media-
tion of emotional exhaustion in the relationship
between knowledge hiding and extra-role perfor-
mance (hypotheses 1–4). The results are presented in
Table 3. The Model 1 & 4 depicts the analysis of
control variables on emotional exhaustion and extra-
role performance, respectively. All control variables
have insignificant impact on the outcome variables
except age which was significantly related to extra-
role performance. Hypothesis 1 was tested in Model
2, which reveals a significant positive relationship
between KH and emotional exhaustion (b = .622,
p < .001), thus providing the support for H1. The
results in Model 6 indicate that high level of emotional
exhaustion reduces the likelihood that KH targets
undertake efforts to enhance extra-role performance
because of the negative relationship between emo-
tional exhaustion and extra-role performance (b
= ˗.067, p < .001), thus supporting H2. Model 5 pro-
vides the support for the baseline argument
(Hypothesis 3) that knowledge hiding reduces the
likelihood of KH targets to go out of the way or put
extra efforts to help their fellow workers. The model
reveals a significant negative relationship between KH
and extra-role performance (b = ˗.531, p < .001), thus
Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlations.
Variable Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 Gender
1.41 0.49
2 Age2.55 1.02 −.193**
3 Education2.31 0.72 −.015 .263**
4 Job Tenure2.17 0.95 −.156** .672** .258**
5 Knowledge Hiding 3.26 0.60 −.005 .074 −.089 −.019 (0.85)
6 Emotional Exhaustion 3.21 0.70 −.060 .082 −.034 .076 .540** (0.79)
7 Political Skill 2.39 0.68 .020 −.043 .094 −.077 −.048 −.039 (0.70)
8 Extra-Role Performance 2.46 0.38 .015 −.064 .076 .023 −.850** −.545** .020 (0.71)
Notes: n = 428. Alpha coefficients are presented in parentheses on the diagonal. For gender, 1 = “male”, 2 = “female”; ᵇ For age, 1 = 18–24 years,
2 = 25–31 years, 3 = 32–38 years, 4 = 39–45 years, 5 = 46 & above; ᶜ For education, 1 = graduation, 2 = masters, 3 = M.Phil./PhD; ᵈ For job tenure, 1 = less
than one year, 2 = 1–5 years, 3 = 6–10 years, 4 = 11–15 years, 5 = above 15 years
* p < .05, ** p < .01
6N. U. AIN ET AL.
providing support for H3. In addition, the results also
revealed that emotional exhaustion mediates the rela-
tionship between KH and extra-role performance with
an indirect effect of ˗.041 at bootstrap bias-corrected
95% confidence interval of (˗0.062, ˗0.019), thereby
providing support for H4.
The presence of moderated mediation (hypotheses
5–6) was tested through conditional PROCESS analy-
sis (Hayes, 2013). In Table 3, the results in Model 3
revealed that the interaction term between KH and
political skill on emotional exhaustion is statistically
significant (b = .206, p < .01), indicating that the
relationship between knowledge hiding and emotional
exhaustion is moderated by political skill, hence pro-
viding support for hypothesis 5. Moreover, the condi-
tional effects on emotional exhaustion at low and high
levels of political skill were also analysed by perform-
ing simple slope analysis (1 SD below and above the
mean) (Cohen et al., 2014). The results indicate that
the relationship between KH and emotional exhaus-
tion is more pronounced when political skill was low
as compared to high. Figure 2 depicts the interaction
plot.
Finally, in hypothesis 6, it was predicted that the
indirect effect of knowledge hiding on extra-role
performance through emotional exhaustion varied at
different levels of political skill. As shown in Table 4, at
95 % confidence interval and one SD above the mean,
the zero does not lie in the conditional effect of knowl-
edge hiding (˗0.049, ˗0.013), indicating the signifi-
cance of conditional indirect effect of knowledge
hiding at high level of political skill. Likewise, at one
SD below the mean, the upper and lower confidence
interval does not encompass zero (˗0.074, ˗0.023), thus
proving the significance of conditional indirect effect
of knowledge hiding at low level of political skill. So,
overall these results indicate the presence of moder-
ated mediation and provide support for hypothesis 6.
5. Discussion
The current study extended the extant KH literature
by investigating the effects of knowledge hiding on
extra-role performance of target employees through
emotional exhaustion and also examined the buffering
role of political skills. On the basis of COR theory
(Hobfoll, 2001), emotional exhaustion provides cru-
cial links between knowledge hiding and reduced
extra-role performance. The research findings offer
empirical support for the proposed relationships,
Table 2. Confirmatory factor analyses results.
Measurement Models χ2 df χ2/df GFI CFI RMSEA SRMR
KH – EE – PS (3 factor)
KH – EE – PS (1 factor)
681.85
1221.47
358
377
1.91
3.23
.90
.82
.90
.74
.04
.07
.06
.14
EE – PS – ERP (3 factor)
EE – PS – ERP (1 factor)
824.84
2069.28
454
377
1.81
4.18
.90
.76
.91
.62
.04
.08
.05
.13
KH – EE (2 factor)
KH – EE (1 factor)
438.50
977.52
173
189
2.53
5.17
.90
.80
.91
.70
.06
.09
.08
.18
KH – PS (2 factor)
KH – PS (1 factor)
322.51
474.38
162
170
1.99
2.80
.93
.88
.92
.84
.04
.07
.05
.06
PS – EE (2 factor)
PS – EE (1 factor)
202.90
447.02
107
119
1.89
3.75
.95
.87
.94
.78
.04
.08
.07
.09
Better fit indices are shown in bold.
Table 3. Regression results.
Emotional Exhaustion Extra-role performance
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6
Age .041
(.045)
−.025
(.038)
−.029
(.038)
−.059**
(.025)
−.003
(.013)
−.004
(.013)
Gender −.060
(.070)
−.068
(.059)
−.078
(.058)
.002
(.038)
.009
(.020)
.005
(.020)
Job Tenure .033
(.048)
.076
(.040)
.078
(.041)
.043
(.026)
.006
(.014)
.011
(.014)
Education −.060
(.047)
−.003
(.041)
−.002
(.040)
.047
(.026)
−.001
(.014)
−.001
(.013)
Knowledge Hiding .622***
(.047)
.595***
(.048)
−.531***
(.016)
−.489***
(.019)
Political Skill −.005
(.042)
−.002
(.042)
−.011
(.014)
−.012
(.014)
Knowledge Hiding ×
Political Skill
.206**
(.068)
Emotional Exhaustion −.067***
(.017)
F-value 1.38 30.37*** 27.82*** 2.09 182.73*** 164.85***
R2 .013 .302 .316 .019 .722 .733
ΔR2 .289*** .014** .703*** .011***
Notes: n = 428 (standard errors are enclosed in parentheses)
* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH & PRACTICE 7
thus, providing a more nuanced view regarding the
negative reactions due to knowledge hiding. The
results suggested that knowledge hiding is positively
related to emotional exhaustion, indicating that
knowledge hiding elicit negative reactions in the target
employees, which then provokes retaliation in the
targets (Smart Richman & Leary, 2009) and ultimately
limits the propensity of target employees to actively
engage in extra-role work behaviours as a form of
retaliation and as a way to conserve further resource
loss and preserve the feelings of self-control (De
Clercq et al., 2018; Connelly & Zweig, 2015). In turn,
this retaliatory behaviour may result in reduced extra-
role performance by target employees. The findings of
the current research are consistent with previous
research regarding the detrimental negative psycholo-
gical and behavioural consequences of KH (Connelly
& Zweig, 2015; Pan et al., 2018; Škerlavaj et al., 2018).
Further, it also demonstrated that political skill
buffers the relationship between knowledge hiding
and emotional exhaustion. The fundamental purpose
of using political skill resource is to prevent further
resource loss through the use of pro-social behaviours
and beneficial coalitions; instead of engaging in reta-
liation by adopting anti-social behaviours (Kolodinsky
et al., 2007). In particular, the KH targets possessing
political skill may feel that their social resources can be
increased by effectually building social network with
other co-workers; thereby might reduce the tendency
of their further exclusion and enhance their inclusion-
ary status (Dudenhöffer & Dormann, 2015).
Consequently, individuals having high political skill
are less likely to undergo emotional exhaustion even
when faced with KH.
Overall, the current study offers a thorough under-
standing regarding the influence of KH on extra-role
employee performance. Specifically, it reveals how
emotional exhaustion act as critical mechanism in
connecting knowledge hiding to reduced extra-role
performance and also demonstrates how employees’
ability (i.e. political skill) buffer this process. The cur-
rent study is contributing to the existing literature in
several ways. First, this study conceptualises knowl-
edge hiding as a workplace interpersonal stressor and
utilises a stress perspective for the explication of
knowledge hiding and performance linkage
(Connelly & Zweig, 2015; Penhaligon et al., 2013).
Second, it has demonstrated that how knowledge
hiding affects target’s extra-role performance by indi-
cating the underlying psychological mechanism in the
form of emotional exhaustion. Third, another theore-
tical contribution of this research in KM literature is
the addition of political skill as a significant boundary
condition to explicate the impact of knowledge hiding
extra-role performance via emotional exhaustion. This
finding demonstrates that when faced with knowledge
hiding, individuals having high political skill are less
likely to experience emotional exhaustion than indivi-
duals with low political skill as the former have more
self-confidence and positive attitude towards the inter-
personal workplace stressors. Further, the exploration
of potential boundary conditions add to our under-
standing regarding the circumstances under which
KH is less or more likely to cause emotional exhaus-
tion. Fourth, the study expands the existing knowledge
hiding literature by focusing on target’s perception of
knowledge hiding and trying to examine target’s extra-
role performance in response to KH, underpinned by
COR theory. To the best of our knowledge, no empiri-
cal study has been conducted to investigate the KH
and extra-role performance linkage from targets’ per-
spective using COR, thus extending the previous
application of COR theory to the context of KH.
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
Low Knowledge hiding High Knowledge hiding
High Political Skill
Low Political Skill
noitsuahxElanoitomE
Figure 2. Political skill moderation on the relationship between knowledge hiding and emotional exhaustion.
Table 4. Conditional indirect effects .
Political Skill Indirect effect of Knowledge hiding
95 % confidence
interval
Lower Upper
High 0.0302
(0.009)
0.049 0.013
Low 0.0481
(0.013)
0.074 0.023
8N. U. AIN ET AL.
5.1. Practical Implications
Understanding when and how knowledge hiding
affects extra-role performance has some practical
implications as well. First, this study increases the
awareness of management and employees about nega-
tive effects of KH on performance. Thus, managers
can take measures to avoid incidences of KH by
encouraging employees to share knowledge with co-
workers by promoting just interpersonal interactions,
cooperation among employees, thereby, enhancing
their sense of responsibility and accountability
(Serenko & Bontis, 2016). They can also do so by
linking organisation rewards (i.e. bonuses, salary or
promotion incentives) to knowledge sharing beha-
viours (Lin, 2007), along with increased efforts to
foster positive interpersonal interactions and recipro-
cal relationships among employees.
Second, by strengthening positive political abilities
of employees, the management can mitigate the nega-
tive influence of KH on performance. This can be done
by providing counselling and designing the needed
training programmes for positive political skills of
existing employees, so that they can control for the
effects of KH on their cognitions, emotions and resul-
tant stress. This can be done through specific methods,
such as drama-based trainings, critique sessions and
behavioural modelling (Ferris et al., 2005). Further,
HR department can devise such recruitment and selec-
tion strategies that encourage the selection of employ-
ees having high levels of such abilities.
Third, it is not possible to fully eliminate the KH
incidences (Pan et al., 2018). However, the negative
impact of KH on behaviours of employees can be
minimised. In this vein, this study enriches the under-
standing of mangers about the perceptions of target
employees regarding KH incidence as negative inter-
personal stressor, causing the target employees to be
emotionally exhausted due to depletion of valued
resources and subsequent-reduced performance. So,
management could take appropriate steps to enhance
one’s personal resources in the form of improved self-
esteem, sense of belongingness and positive beha-
vioural intentions (Cole et al., 2010). For instance,
Balliet (2010) suggested that improved communica-
tion among organisational members is a pertinent
solution to social dilemmas. This is because; commu-
nication reduces the probability of individuals to
respond in self-centred ways. Therefore, negative con-
sequences of knowledge hiding can be alleviated by
increasing the frequency of communication and
healthy social interactions among employees. Hence,
both employees and organisations should be aware of
the negative consequences of KH and strive alike to
limit the KH incidences in organisations and to reduce
the potential emotional, behavioural and financial
losses from this counterproductive organisational
phenomenon.
5.2. Limitations and future research directions
The current research has several limitations that must
be noted. First, convenience sampling was used to
collect the data. Although, this sampling technique
has been widely used in behavioural and organisa-
tional research, but still it is considered to be limited
in its representative power (Gravetter & Forzano,
2011). Therefore, generalisation of research findings
ought to be done with appropriate caution. The future
research could attempt to make use of other sampling
techniques to extend the findings of this study.
Second, although, the present research is culture-
free as the tested hypotheses were developed from
a context-free model, but still the generalisability
may be contaminated because the singular focus of
the study was Pakistani service sector organisations.
This distinctiveness might create difficulty of exact
replication into another context, thus the findings
might not necessarily be generalised across other eco-
nomic sectors and countries, as individuals are signif-
icantly influenced by their particular national and
organisational culture. Accordingly, the commence-
ment of cross-country comparisons would be useful
to evaluate the eminence of perceived knowledge hid-
ing for inducing emotional exhaustion and reduced
extra-role performance, in other cultural settings apart
from Pakistan. Hence, the future studies may attempt
to replicate and validate the theoretical model of this
study in other settings and extend these findings.
Third, this study focused on stress perspective and
considers emotional exhaustion as potential underly-
ing mechanism to gain deeper insights in this process.
Future studies may inspect the impact of other alter-
natives such as cognitive trust (Dowell et al., 2015),
perception of politics (Ferris et al., 2000), and negative
reciprocity beliefs (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005) as
mediating variables. So, this study provides an initial
assessment of mediating role of emotional exhaustion.
Fourth, this study has taken knowledge of hiding as
unidirectional scale. The research has suggested that
different dimensions of KH (i.e. playing dumb, evasive
and rationalised hiding) may have different outcomes
at individual, interpersonal and organisational level
(Connelly & Zweig, 2015; Fong et al., 2018), because
KH does not encompass uniform set of negative beha-
viours. Knowledge hiding, as compared to other coun-
terproductive behaviours, is not essentially always
intended to damage an individual or the organisation.
Both playing dumb and evasive hiding involve decep-
tion due to lack of justifiable rationale, while rationa-
lised hiding provide reasonable justification for the
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH & PRACTICE 9
behaviour, thus does not necessarily involve deception
(Connelly & Zweig, 2015). Therefore, future studies
can focus to analyse the separate effect of each dimen-
sion on target’s job performance.
Finally, this study has focused on only one per-
sonal resource in the form of political skill that can
mitigate the negative influence of knowledge hid-
ing. Future studies can focus on other potential
personal and organisational resources such as resi-
lience (Cooper et al., 2014), big five personality
traits (Witt et al., 2002), mindfulness (Zheng &
Liu, 2017), supportive organisational climate
(Luthans et al., 2008), and core self-evaluation
(CSE) (Anand & Mishra, 2019), that might reduce
the propensity of employees to undergo negative
emotions in response to knowledge hiding. For
instance, CSE being a crucial personality dimen-
sion, captures an individual’s fundamental evalua-
tions about his/her work environment (Judge et al.,
2005). Individuals equipped with high CSE are self-
assured, confident, emotionally stable and capable
of solving problems (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller,
2012), and mostly appraised their interpersonal
interactions and workplace events positively, thus
are better able to deal with external constraints and
experience positive attitudes and emotions
accordingly.
5.3. Conclusion
Drawing on COR theory, this study has contributed to
research by establishing that knowledge hiding can
have detrimental influence on extra-role performance
directly as well as indirectly through emotional
exhaustion. Further, the relationship between KH
and emotional exhaustion was found to be less forceful
for individuals possessing high political skills, which
in turn reduced the reluctance to undertake extra-role
behaviours. We hope that this study serves as a catalyst
for continuing examinations on how organisations
can cope with the negative reactions of individuals
when they are faced with knowledge hiding.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH & PRACTICE 13
Appendix A
Construct Measurement Items
Knowledge Hiding
KH1 Your co-worker agreed to help you but never really intended to.
KH2 Your co-worker agreed to help you but instead gave you information different from what you wanted.
KH3 Your co-worker told you that s/he would help you out later but stalled as much as possible.
KH4 Your co-worker offered you some other information instead of what you really wanted.
KH5 Your co-worker pretended that s/he did not know the information.
KH6 Your co-worker said that s/he did not know, even though s/he did.
KH7 Your co-worker pretended s/he did not know what you were talking about.
KH8 Your co-worker said that s/he was not very knowledgeable about the topic.
KH9 Your co-worker explained that s/he would like to tell you, but was not supposed to.
KH10 Your co-worker explained that the information is confidential and only available to people on a particular project.
KH11 Your co-worker told you that his/her boss would not let anyone share this knowledge
KH12 Your co-worker said that s/he would not answer your questions.
Extra-role Performance
ERP1 Your subordinate helps others who have been absent.
ERP2 Your subordinate willingly gives time to help others who have work related problems.
ERP3 Your subordinate adjusts his/her work schedule to accommodate other employees’ requests for time off.
ERP4 Your subordinate goes out of the way to make newer employees feel welcome in the work group.
ERP5 Your subordinate shows genuine concern and courtesy towards co-workers, even under the most trying business or personal situations.
ERP6 Your subordinate give up time to help others who have work or non-work Problems
ERP7 Your subordinate assists others with their duties.
ERP8 Your subordinate shares personal property with others to help their work.
ERP9 Your subordinate attends functions that are not required but that help the organisational image.
ERP10 Your subordinate keeps up with developments in the organisation.
ERP11 Your subordinate defends the organisation when other employees criticise it.
ERP12 Your subordinate shows pride when representing the organisation in public.
ERP13 Your subordinate offers ideas to improve the functioning of the organisation.
ERP14 Your subordinate express loyalty towards the organisation.
ERP15 Your subordinate takes actions to protect the organisation from potential problems.
ERP16 Your subordinate demonstrates concern about the image of the organisation.
Emotional Exhaustion
EE1 I feel emotionally drained from my work.
EE2 I feel used up at the end of the workday.
EE3 I feel fatigued when I get up in the morning and have to face another day on the job.
EE4 Working with people all day is really a strain for me.
EE5 I feel burned out from my work.
EE6 I feel frustrated by my job.
EE7 I feel I’m working too hard on my job.
EE8 Working with people directly puts too much stress on me.
EE9 I feel like I’m at the end of my rope.
Political Skill
PS1 I spend a lot of time and effort at work networking with others.
PS2 At work, I know a lot of important people and I am well connected.
PS3 It is important that people believe I am sincere in what I say and do.
PS4 When communicating with others, I try to be genuine in what I say and do.
PS5 I always seem to instinctively know the right thing to say or do to influence others.
PS6 I have good intuition or savvy about how to present myself to others.
PS7 It is easy for me to develop good rapport with most people.
PS8 I am able to make most people feel comfortable and at ease around me.
14 N. U. AIN ET AL.
