Purpose

This study addresses a central research question: Is individuals’ propensity to hide knowledge a “political phenomenon” among researchers in the Indian higher education institutions? Drawing upon social exchange and uncertainty management theories, the authors examine how a three-way interaction effect of perceptions of organizational politics, political will and political skill contributes to knowledge hiding. In addition, this study aims to develop a nuanced understanding of the knowledge hiding phenomenon in the Indian higher education context.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a mixed-method study design with an explanatory sequential approach. The authors gathered data through a cross-sectional survey of 286 researchers (Study 1) followed by two focus group discussions (Study 2) involving 13 academic researchers from five Indian universities. The sample includes full-time faculty members, postgraduate and full-time doctoral students engaged in research.

Findings

The results of Study 1 indicate that researchers’ perceptions of organizational politics positively relate to their knowledge hiding. The findings of this study also suggest that the positive relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and knowledge hiding turns negative for individuals with high political will and high political skill. The focus group discussions (Study 2) explore significant predictors of knowledge hiding. This study unveils various characteristics of knowledge, knowledge hider, knowledge seeker and interpersonal dynamics as the key drivers of knowledge hiding in Indian academia.

Originality/value

The significant contributions of this study are to provide new insights into the relationship between organizational politics and knowledge hiding and to unravel the various factors that incite knowledge hiding among researchers in the Indian higher education context. This study is one among the few in the knowledge hiding literature to adopt a mixed-method research design with an explanatory sequential approach.

中文翻译：

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隐藏在高等教育中的知识是一种政治现象吗？探索非线性和三向交互效应的解释性顺序方法

目的

这项研究解决了一个核心研究问题：个人隐藏知识的倾向是印度高等教育机构研究人员的“政治现象”吗？利用社会交换和不确定性管理理论，作者研究了对组织政治、政治意愿和政治技能的感知的三向交互效应如何促成知识隐藏。此外，本研究旨在深入了解印度高等教育背景下的知识隐藏现象。

设计/方法/方法

本研究采用混合方法研究设计，采用解释性顺序方法。作者通过对 286 名研究人员的横断面调查（研究 1）收集数据，随后进行了两次焦点小组讨论（研究 2），涉及来自五所印度大学的 13 名学术研究人员。样本包括从事研究的全日制教职工、研究生和全日制博士生。

发现

研究 1 的结果表明，研究人员对组织政治的看法与他们的知识隐藏正相关。本研究的结果还表明，对于具有高政治意愿和高政治技能的个人，组织政治感知与知识隐藏之间的正相关关系变为负相关。焦点小组讨论（研究 2）探讨了知识隐藏的重要预测因素。本研究揭示了知识、知识隐藏者、知识寻求者和人际动态的各种特征，这些特征是印度学术界知识隐藏的关键驱动因素。

原创性/价值

本研究的重要贡献是为组织政治与知识隐藏之间的关系提供新的见解，并揭示在印度高等教育背景下激发研究人员隐藏知识的各种因素。这项研究是知识隐藏文献中为数不多的采用混合方法研究设计和解释性顺序方法的研究之一。