Knowledge hiding in the COVID 19 Era: A Managerial Perspective

Abstract

The COVID 19 pandemic has brought so many changes in workplaces and triggered knowledge hiding behaviours in employees as a result of increased job insecurity. This study was focused on enquiring how leadership in organizations discouraged knowledge hiding in their organizations. The research was more focused on this angle as many studies only focus on causes and effects of knowledge hiding. The study was based on a qualitative approach and face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the relevant data. Some secondary information was also used mainly in the form of company reports. The study revealed that job insecurity, power play and competition were among the causes of knowledge hiding. It also revealed that incentives, inclusion and an open culture were essential and proved methods of mitigating knowledge hiding tendencies. The implications of the study were that the leadership played a huge role in ensuring knowledge hiding in workplaces decreased. The researcher recommended that leadership had to be attuned to their employees’ behaviour in order to pick up the knowledge hiding tendencies as well as deliver successful mitigation methods.