协同工作设计能缓解组织知识隐藏“困境”吗--基于防御型与促进型心理所有权视角

Can Collaborative Job Design Alleviate the Dilemma of Knowledge Hiding in Organizations?An Analysis from the Perspective of Preventive and Promotive Psychological Ownership

如何有效干预知识隐藏、突破知识型组织发展的约束性因素,是组织管理中亟需解决的难题,尤其是在竞合交织的工作情境下鲜有研究同时考虑合作性、竞争性工作情境对知识隐藏行为的影响机制,导致对知识隐藏的认知存在片面性。鉴于此,结合心理所有权理论,探讨协同工作设计与团队竞争氛围影响知识隐藏的联动机制。通过对77个知识团队的457名成员进行两阶段问卷调查,研究发现,知识心理所有权、组织心理所有权在协同工作设计(任务互依性、社会支持和他人反馈)与知识隐藏之间起中介作用,团队竞争氛围在协同工作设计要素通过知识心理所有权、组织心理所有权影响知识隐藏的中介路径中发挥调节作用。上述结论不仅为深入研究知识隐藏行为提供了全新的理论视角,也为构建竞争与合作平衡的知识型组织提供了有益启示。

Over the past few decades,many organizations have transformed from bureaucratic structure into team-based structure.Team members may face dilemmas which makes it possible for them to have both a motivation to share(e.g.seeing its importance to the teams,or to be rewarded for sharing)and to hide(e.g.losing knowledge power by sharing unique knowledge).However,in the current context of cooperation and competition,few studies have explored knowledge hiding behavior in organizations from an integrated perspective of team work situation and individual psychological ownership,resulting in the lack of a comprehensive understanding of knowledge hiding.Based on the theory of cooperation and competition,this paper aims to deepen the understanding of cooperative(collaborative job design)and competitive(team competitive climate)factors that affect knowledge hiding within knowledge teams.A two-stage questionnaire survey was conducted on a nation-wide sample of 457 members from 77 knowledge teams in China.The researcher contacted the surveyed teams through personal ties to solicit their willingness to participate.Samples were selected from a variety of knowledge-intensive industries,including information technology services,finance,healthcare,scientific research and technology services,to ensure the representation and comprehensiveness of the samples.The survey used multiple time points for data collection(one month interval)to minimize the common method bias.Using multilevel structural equation model,this study investigated the impact of collaborative job design(i.e.,task interdependence,social support and feedback from others)on knowledge hiding,the mediating role of knowledge psychological ownership(KPO)and organizational psychological ownership(OPO),and the moderated mediating role of team competitive climate.This paper finds that collaborative job design can help alleviate the contradiction of knowledge hiding in organizations.Task interdependence and social support weaken preventive psychological ownership(KPO),which in turn reduces knowledge hiding.Meanwhile,collaborative job design(i.e.,task interdependence,social support and feedback from others)discourages knowledge hiding in organizations by strengthening promotive psychological ownership(OPO).However,team competitive climate may affect the effectiveness of collaborative job design.Specifically,in a weak team competitive climate,collaborative job design not only strengthens OPO,but also weakens KPO,thereby lessening knowledge hiding.However,in a fierce team competitive environment,feedback from others increases KPO,which in turn increases knowledge hiding.Therefore itis suggested that firstly managers should build a team member relationship of mutual trust through collaborative work design to intervene in knowledge hiding.Secondly they should provide positive feedback based on individual performance in the team and weaken their psychological ownership of knowledge.Thirdly managers should design corresponding measures to affect employees'psychological ownership orientation.Thisstudy has four important contributions.First,this paper constructs a relationship between collaborative job design and knowledge hiding,and enriches the study of antecedents of knowledge hiding and provides a new direction for intervening in knowledge hiding.Second,based on an integrated perspective of knowledge and organizational psychological ownership,it not only stresses the important role of the psychology of possession and property within the collaborative job design experience,but also reveals the internal psychological mechanism between collaborative job design and knowledge hiding.Specifically,this paper shows the positive effects of task interdependence and social support in inhibiting knowledge hiding.Moreover,it discovers the double-edged sword effect of feedback from others.The findings provide a theoretical basis for managing knowledge behavior in both positive and negative ways.Third,this paper built upon the theory of cooperation and competition to consider the effect of collaborative job design in conjunction with team competitive climate,which enriches the understanding of the mechanisms and boundary conditions between collaborative job design and knowledge hiding.Fourth,focusing on collaborative job design from a relational perspective,this study deepens the understanding of job design and psychological ownership theory.It is suggested that future research should consider multi-source data collection methods,and expand the antecedent variables of knowledge hiding from the perspectives of salary design and performance evaluation.Although this study verifies the moderating mediating role of team competitive atmosphere between collaborative work design and knowledge hiding,there may also be other moderating mechanisms,such as individual competitive characteristics and individual goal orientation.