To read this content please select one of the options below:

Obligations and feeling envied: a study of workplace status and knowledge hiding

Yan Liu (Department of Business and Administration, School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China)
Julie N.Y. Zhu (Department of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau, Macau, China)
Long W. Lam (Department of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau, Macau, China)

Journal of Managerial Psychology

ISSN: 0268-3946

Article publication date: 20 May 2020

Issue publication date: 25 August 2020

1539

Abstract

Purpose

Status is a key in the workplace. Although status is desirable when it has positive outcomes, little is known about its negative consequences. This study investigates both the bright and dark sides of workplace status in terms of employees' feelings and behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 227 employees in various industries at two time points.

Findings

Workplace status is associated with knowledge hiding through two opposing mechanisms: felt obligation to share knowledge and feeling envied.

Practical implications

Managers may need to direct high-status employees' attention to felt obligation to share knowledge and shift their attention away from feeling envied.

Originality/value

Our study enriches the understanding of workplace status by theoretically proposing and empirically testing a comprehensive framework that simultaneously considers its positive and negative impacts.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the Asia Academy of Management Conference in 2019.This research is partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 71872135) and China’s Ministry of Education Funds for Humanities and Social Science (Grant number: 17YJA630062).

Citation

Liu, Y., Zhu, J.N.Y. and Lam, L.W. (2020), "Obligations and feeling envied: a study of workplace status and knowledge hiding", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 35 No. 5, pp. 347-359. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-05-2019-0276

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles