Does humble leadership mitigate employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviour? The mediating role of employees’ self-efficacy and trust in their leader

Abstract

Purpose The concept of knowledge-hiding starkly contradicts the notions with which it is closely associated, such as knowledge-hoarding and knowledge-sharing. The understanding of the effect of humble leadership on follower knowledge-hiding behaviour is particularly limited, as it is significantly underdeveloped owing to its distinct nature. Ergo, this paper aims to explore the role of humble leadership and its ability to mitigate employee knowledge-hiding behaviour. Moreover, this study aims to investigate the mediating effect of employee self-efficacy and the trust that they have in their leader, based on the relationship between humble leadership behaviour and knowledge-hiding in Jordanian health-care organisations. Design/methodology/approach This study used a quantitative method, and 260 employees of Jordan’s health-care organisations completed an online self-report questionnaire. Further to this, structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesised correlations. Findings According to the findings of this study, the leaders who exhibited humble behaviour mitigated their employees’ tendencies to engage in the two dimensions of knowledge-hiding (evasive hiding and playing dumb); however, they increased the tendency to practice rationalised hiding. Furthermore, the self-efficacy of employees and trust in their leader mediated the relationship between humble leadership and employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviour. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by proposing and empirically demonstrating the impact of humble leadership across all three dimensions of knowledge-hiding behaviour, which in turn facilitates new discoveries in a developing country setting. This research expands and sheds light on the theory of humble leadership by proposing a motivational aspect in the negative relation between humble leadership and employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviour: employees’ self-efficacy and trust in their leader.

The impact of humble leadership on employee agility: unveiling the mediating role of employees' self-efficacy

“…Prior empirical studies (e.g., Al Hawamdeh, 2023;Chu et al, 2022;Asghar et al, 2022) have yielded robust evidence supporting the positive link between humble leadership and employees' self-efficacy. Humble leadership publicly acknowledges and appreciates team members' efforts, enhancing self-efficacy and motivating individuals to continue contributing and exploring new endeavors (Al Hawamdeh, 2023).…”

“…Prior empirical studies (e.g., Al Hawamdeh, 2023;Chu et al, 2022;Asghar et al, 2022) have yielded robust evidence supporting the positive link between humble leadership and employees' self-efficacy. Humble leadership publicly acknowledges and appreciates team members' efforts, enhancing self-efficacy and motivating individuals to continue contributing and exploring new endeavors (Al Hawamdeh, 2023). When humble leaders acknowledge and appreciate their followers' strengths and contributions, going so far as to position themselves as learners from the strengths of their team members, it can strengthen followers' belief in their abilities (Wang et al, 2018;Ali et al, 2020).…”

How does humble leadership influence employee improvisation? A motivational perspective

“…Humble leaders are good at creating an approachable atmosphere, finding the best in employees, listening to others' opinions, and being able to take criticism and praise objectively. When leaders show this humanized side, they can narrow the distance between employees and leaders (Al Hawamdeh, 2023), and make employees feel that leaders are easy to get along with, thus forming high-quality LMX.…”

The Effect of Follower Identity on Followership: The Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy

“…Although the influence of followership in organizations has received much attention and scholars have explored the causes of followership from multiple perspectives, most of these studies tend to focus on the leader, mainly exploring the influence of the leader’s implicit cognition, leadership behavior, leadership style, and other factors on followership [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Significant efforts have been made by numerous researchers to examine how transformational leadership [ 3 , 8 , 11 ], workplace authentic leadership [ 12 ], ethical leadership [ 6 , 13 ], servant leadership [ 14 ] and humble leadership [ 15 ] affects followership or other employees’ behaviors.…”

“…Furthermore, enough attention has been given to the intervening mechanism that exists between leadership and employee behaviors [ 3 , 22 ], numerous researchers examined the mediation role of self-efficacy between leadership and employee engagement [ 13 ], followers’ organizational citizenship behavior [ 14 ], and employees’ knowledge-hiding behavior [ 15 ]. To the best of our knowledge, only Xiong and Epitropaki discussed a direct link between followers’ identity and followership [ 17 , 19 ], while no other study has examined the role of self-efficacy in a follower as mediators between follower identification and followership.…”