ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1600266
Managing knowledge hiding behaviors in Chinese enterprises: The mediating effects of power dynamics losses
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Shandong University, Qingdao, China
- 2China Classification, Qingdao, China
- 3Shandong University, School of Computer Science and Technology, Qingdao, China
- 4School of Mathematics, Shandong University, Qingdao, China
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This paper investigates the influence of power dynamics on knowledge-hiding (KH) behaviors in Chinese enterprises. Data were collected through questionnaires from 342 respondents. Structural equational modeling was performed to analyze the relationships among the perceived value of knowledge (PVK), loss of knowledge power (LOKP), and KH. The findings indicate that PVK is positively related to LOKP, and LOKP mediates the relationship between PVK and KH. However, several hypothesized relationships were not supported, highlighting the complexity of the mechanism underlying KH. The findings suggest that while power dynamics influence KH behaviors, their effects may vary across different contexts and conditions. This study enhances the current understanding of knowledge hiding by contextualizing power dynamics in the Chinese context. It offers a nuanced understanding of when and how knowledge power affects employees' willingness to share or withhold knowledge.
Keywords: Perceived value of knowledge, Loss of knowledge power, Knowledge hiding, Chinese enterprises, Decision Making
Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Liu, Spolaor and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yi Liu, liuyi969@sdu.edu.cn
Riccardo Spolaor, rspolaor@sdu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.