The influence of competitive personality on rationalized knowledge hiding among Chinese employees

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between competitive personality (CMP) and rationalized knowledge hiding (KH) and to explore the mediating effects of knowledge-based psychological ownership (KPO) and organization-based PO (OPO) by developing a mediating framework. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from the ordinary employees of listed companies in China (2022) via a Web-based survey. The total number of valid samples was 337. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the reliability and validity of the constructs, and structural equation modeling was used to verify the direct and mediating effects. Findings The findings revealed a positive relationship between CMP and rationalized KH (RKH). KPO plays a positive mediating role between CMP and RKH, whereas OPO plays a negative mediating role between CMP and RKH. Research limitations/implications First, although the questionnaire collection is split into two sessions to reduce common method variation, there is inevitably some risk, as the questionnaires are all reported by the same respondent. Second, this study examined the effects of CMP on RKH based on the Chinese cultural context, but the applicability of this finding to cross-cultural contexts warrants further study. In the future, researchers can conduct cross-cultural comparisons to determine the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications This study helps managers to better identify the RKH behaviors that exist in organizations, understand the reasons and processes behind employees’ KH and facilitate more effective knowledge management by managers. Originality/value This study uses CMP as an important indicator of employees’ RKH behavior, enriches the research related to the antecedent variables of RKH and reveals the influence mechanism between CMP and RKH from the perspective of PO, and the findings can help researchers and managers understand the process and antecedents of RKH so that timely interventions can be implemented.