Psychological ownership and knowledge behaviors during a pandemic: role of approach motivation

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to understand the relationship between psychological ownership, knowledge sharing, knowledge hiding and employee motivation in knowledge intensive organizations. We take employee motivation in terms of approach motivation and avoidance motivation and examine moderating role of the former in case of the psychological ownership – knowledge sharing relationship, and the latter in case of the psychological ownership – knowledge hiding relationship. We examine these relationships on data collected during a pandemic (i.e., COVID-19). Data are collected from 217 individuals working in knowledge intensive high-tech organizations and educational institutes. Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). Results show that stronger feelings of psychological ownership lead to both positive work behavior (i.e., knowledge sharing) as well as negative work behavior (i.e., knowledge hiding). Furthermore, approach motivation positively moderates the positive relationship between psychological ownership and knowledge sharing. A moderating role of avoidance motivation, however, is not confirmed. Research has ignored the role of different types of employee motivation, particularly approach motivation vis-à-vis knowledge behaviors. Furthermore, by examining these relationships in the context of a Pandemic (i.e., COVID-19), we offer some interesting insights and offer implications for management practice. For example, managers may incorporate reward practices to motivate employees towards knowledge sharing, and nurture an organizational climate, which discourages knowledge hiding.

Knowledge hiding in the academia: Individual and social factors predicting knowledge hiding behaviour of undergraduates of a Nigerian university

“…Our study also confirms the influence of psychological ownership on KH as previous studies (e.g. Batool et al, 2022;Peng, 2013;Singh, 2019) have established. The study has confirmed the ownership feeling for knowledge is another proximal variable that predicted the KHB of the students.…”

“…That is, the perception of a sense of belonging, accountability and territoriality could result in increasing KHB. For instance, Batool et al (2022) found that stronger feelings of psychological ownership led to both positive work behaviour (i.e. knowledge sharing) as well as negative work behaviour (i.e.…”

“…Individuals may be unwilling to share the target of ownership with others because they may experience a loss of control and negative emotions if they share it with others (Pierce et al, 2003). Also, individuals can form ownership feeling over a target if they have constant control over it, invest much time or energy in it or are familiar with it (Batool et al, 2022; Guo et al, 2022; Li et al, 2015; Peng, 2013; Pierce and Jussila, 2010). That is, the perception of a sense of belonging, accountability and territoriality could result in increasing KHB.…”

Does organizational justice facet matters in knowledge hiding?

“…Psychological ownership is an attitude to which individuals feel that the ownership of target or some part of target is theirs only [ 29 , 30 ]. Ownership can theorize both as psychological state or an objective perspective [ 31 , 32 ].…”

Editorial: Human capital, management and economics during and after the COVID-19 outbreak

“…This resulted in limited economic activity besides interaction among humans affecting students, professionals as well as people from all walks of life. Universities and their faculty had to come up with newer and hybrid ways of teaching using technology (Adedoyin and Soykan, 2023; Malik et al , 2022); organisational employees’ motivation and knowledge-sharing capacities were influenced by that (Batool et al , 2022), as well as people and economies faced poverty (Suryahadi et al , 2020). However, soon after, organisations, individuals and governments found ways out of the deadlock and thrived in their ways.…”