Choosing a better communication style: revealing the relationship between communication style and knowledge hiding behaviour

Abstract

In the era of the knowledge economy, knowledge hiding behaviour and its antecedents and consequences have been of great interest to the academic community. Through a survey of 350 employees of Chinese manufacturing enterprises, this paper explores the mechanism of organizational communication on employees’ knowledge hiding behaviour. The results of the regression analysis show that (1) cooperative communication will reduce employees’ knowledge hiding behaviour; in contrast, competitive communication will increase employees’ knowledge hiding behaviour. (2) There is no significant relationship between online communication and employees’ knowledge hiding behaviour. (3) Although online communication weakens the inhibitory effect of cooperative communication on employee knowledge hiding behaviour, it can alleviate employee knowledge hiding behaviour caused by competitive communication. This study reveals the association between communication styles and employees’ knowledge hiding behaviour, which not only deepens the understanding of the antecedents of knowledge hiding in the academic community but also provides guidance for corporate internal communication and knowledge management practises.