Reward interdependence and project professionals' knowledge hiding: the moderating role of knowledge attributes
ISSN: 1746-5265
Article publication date: 14 April 2023
Issue publication date: 1 June 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Based on interdependence theory, the authors investigated the effect of reward interdependence (RI) on project professionals' knowledge hiding and examined the moderating role of knowledge tacitness (KT) and complexity, in the context of new product development (NPD) teams.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a time-lagged study in the context of NPD teams and collected data from a sample of 231 NPD professionals in China.
Findings
The study's findings indicate that RI was negatively associated with knowledge hiding. Knowledge tacitness negatively moderated the relation between RI and knowledge hiding. In contrast, the moderating effect of knowledge complexity (KC) was not significant.
Practical implications
To reduce NPD professionals' knowledge hiding, organizations should not only design incentive plans that cultivate interpersonal relatedness but also address the drawbacks (decreased effectiveness of group rewards) resulting from KT.
Originality/value
The authors' paper provides novel insights into the inconsistent understanding of organizational rewards' effectiveness in managing knowledge withholding by demonstrating the differentiated effects of individual and group rewards on knowledge hiding as well as the differential contingent roles of knowledge attributes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The work described in this article is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 71902107), the Social Science Planning Project of Shandong Province (No: 19DGLJ11) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No: ZR2017BG008).
Citation
Min, M. and Zhang, Z. (2023), "Reward interdependence and project professionals' knowledge hiding: the moderating role of knowledge attributes", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 317-332. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-09-2022-0336
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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