Art of saying no: linking trust structural hole to knowledge hiding and creativity

Abstract

Although the positive effects of structural holes on creativity have been well explored, little research has explored why structural holes damage creativity. Based on social network theory and impression management theory, we propose that the influence of structural holes of knowledge hiders in trust networks vary by dimensions (i.e., evasive hiding, playing dumb, and rationalized hiding) of knowledge hiding, and structural holes have various indirect effects on creativity via knowledge hiding. Following a two-wave survey of 217 R&D employees, our results show that trust structural holes positively affect all the dimensions of knowledge hiding, and their effect on rationalized hiding is stronger than that on evasive hiding and playing dumb. Furthermore, we prove that evasive hiding has a positive mediating effect on the creativity of brokers, whereas playing dumb and rationalized hiding have adverse effects. Thus, trust structural holes have positive indirect effects on creativity via evasive hiding, while the indirect effects on creativity via playing dumb and rationalized hiding are negative. Moreover, we reveal that perspective taking mitigates the positive effect of structural holes on evasive hiding and playing dumb.