Sharing and hiding knowledge under pandemics: The role of stressor appraisals, perceived supervisor behaviors and attributions of supervisor motives

Abstract

This study aims to shed light on the dual impact of appraisals of pandemic-induced job stressors on employee knowledge sharing and hiding behaviors. Drawing on the transactional attribution model, we hypothesize that employee perceptions of supervisor compassionate and self-serving behavior would positively mediate the impact of employee challenge and hindrance appraisals of pandemic-induced job stressors on employee knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding, respectively. Moreover, stressor appraisals are expected to interact with employee attributions of supervisor compassionate and self-serving motives in shaping perceptions of supervisor compassionate and self-serving behavior, respectively. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two independent studies—a three-wave full longitudinal study with 230 employees from UK and U.S. firms during the first COVID-19 outbreak and a randomized scenario-based experiment with 210 U.S. employees. Cross-lagged structural equation analyses, analyses of variance, and path analyses fully supported our predictions, thus providing a nuanced understanding of the role of perceived supervisor behavior and attributions of supervisor motives in accounting for the differential effects of employee appraisals of pandemic-induced job stressors on knowledge behaviors.