Relations outside the workplace matter! A nexus of coworker ostracism, relational capital, alternate belongingness and knowledge hiding
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-06-2021-0123 |
| Published date | 26 May 2022 |
| Date | 26 May 2022 |
| Pages | 52-67 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
| Author | Tehreem Fatima,Ahmad Raza Bilal,Muhammad Kashif Imran,Muhammad Waqas |
Relations outside the workplace
matter! A nexus of coworker
ostracism, relational capital,
alternate belongingness and
knowledge hiding
Tehreem Fatima
Lahore Business School, The University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus,
Sargodha, Pakistan
Ahmad Raza Bilal
Department of Management Sciences, Sohar University, Sohar, Oman
Muhammad Kashif Imran
Department of Commerce, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur,
Bahawalpur, Pakistan, and
Muhammad Waqas
Lahore Business School, The University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus,
Sargodha, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose –The current study aims to investigate the impact of coworker ostracism on coworker-directed
knowledge hiding through the mediating role of relational social capital and moderating role of alternate
belongingness in Pakistani higher educational settings.
Design/methodology/approach –Atime-lagged study wascarried out in which datafrom teaching and non-
teaching faculty(N5217) from the higher education sector of Lahore,Pakistan, were collected through multi-
stagesampling. The collecteddata were analysedusing moderatedmediation analysis(PROCESS model 4 and7).
Findings –The results revealed that ostracism from coworkers has an unfavourable impact on relational
social capitalthat in turn promotesknowledge hiding. Nonetheless, if ostracized employees had sources to fulfil
belongingness needs outside the work settings, this negative association was strengthened.
Originality/value–The authors have taken the role of belongingness outside the workplace in explaining the
coworker ostracism and knowledge hiding relationship in higher educational settings and identified the
explanatory role of relational social capital.
Keywords Coworker-directed knowledge hiding, Relational social capital, Coworker ostracism,
Alternate belongingness
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Knowledge hiding is against collegial values, yet highly prevalent in academic colleagues.
Research on knowledge hiding in academic settings has gained attention in recent times
(Hernaus et al., 2019). However, the studies in this context mainly focused on students’
perspectives (Garg et al., 2021) or the school domain (Sarwat et al., 2021). From a contextual
view, these studies were carried out in Europe (Hernaus et al., 2019), India (Garg et al., 2021),
Pakistan (Iqbal et al., 2020;Sarwat et al., 2021), Cyprus (Akhlaghimofrad and Farmanesh,
2021) and China (Ghani et al., 2020). Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) rely on norms of
collegiality and interdependent tasks, and this factor is paramount in the collectivist cultures
(Bilal et al., 2019;McGrath et al., 2017;Runhaar et al., 2016). HEIs are knowledge-based
EBHRM
11,1
52
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2049-3983.htm
Received 14 June 2021
Revised 25 February 2022
Accepted 6 May 2022
Evidence-based HRM: a Global
Forum for Empirical Scholarship
Vol. 11 No. 1, 2023
pp. 52-67
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2049-3983
DOI10.1108/EBHRM-06-2021-0123
organizations, so, it is important to examine the phenomenon of knowledge hiding in
academic settings (Iqbal et al., 2020).
In contemporary literature, the relationship between workplace ostracism and knowledge
hiding has beencapturing the attention of academicians for thelast decade. Furthermore, with
the emergence of knowledge-based view, the practice side is giving due importance to
knowledge workers and initializing steps to impose a bar on concealing information that
employeespossess and potentially benefitsthe organization. The perspectivesfrom the extant
literature statethat workplace ostracism increases knowledgehiding (Fatima et al., 2021;Riaz
et al., 2019;Sun et al.,2021;Zhao et al., 2016). Furthermore, workplace ostracism is one of the
leavesof a tree that is regarded as workplacemistreatment. There are otherforms of workplace
mistreatmentas well, such as workplace incivility(Jensen and Raver, 2021), workplacehazing
(Thomas etal., 2021), workplace bullying(Rekn es etal.,2021) and abusive s upervision (Fischer
et al.,2021). Ostracism can be vertical or horizontal, i.e. it can be faced by superiors or peers.
Given the collaborative work settings in HEIs, the role of a coworker is paramount (Ahmad
et al., 2016), and examining coworker ostracism (Breidenthal et al.,2020) is fruitful. Social
interaction is one of the sources of knowledge sharing (Perrault and Hildenbrand, 2019), and
ostracismhampers good social relationshipsin the workplace and can causeknowledge hiding
(Fatima et al.,2021;Zhao et al.,2016). There are various reasonsbehind obscuring information
based on workplace mistreatments. First, employees hide information to bounce back at the
time of need or revenge.Second, they might feel that thisinformation is their strength andgive
an edge in critical times.Third, they are of the view that this knowledgeis their property and
why to give it to the organization or otheremployees when they are mistreated.Among these
mistreatments, workplace ostracism has been considered a silent one that needs special
attention (Imranet al., 2021;Wesselmann a nd Williams, 2017).
Despite the assumed relation between workplace ostracism and knowledge hiding among
employees in an individual capacity, group or team environment, and even in organizational
settings, the practical research concentrating on the ostracism and knowledge-hiding link
does not always offer an indication to support such a relationship. A decent total of research
highlighted that sometimes employees are involved in prosocial behaviour when they are
being ostracized (Balliet and Ferris, 2013;Feinberg et al., 2014;Haldorai et al., 2022). Based on
a social exchange perspective, workplace ostracism can reduce the level of relational social
capital (Jawahar et al., 2021). Social capital development is important for overall knowledge
management in organizations (Manning, 2010). Relational construct mainly focuses on the
mutual identification, obligation and trust in the members of organizations, and building an
overall friendly working environment (Burt, 2000). Moreover, recent research has suggested
that declined level of relational social capital spurs knowledge hiding (Abdullah et al., 2019).
Therefore, it is proposed that coworker ostracism has negative effects on relational social
capital, and on the other side, less relational social capital promotes knowledge hiding in the
organization. This study investigates the mediating effect of relational social capital on the
association between coworker ostracism and knowledge hiding.
By the virtue of workplace ostracism presented by Williams (1997), it is presumed that
ostracism normally generates harmful effects on employee work and non-work-related
outcomes. Furthermore, a temporal need-threat model (Williams, 2009) claimed that ostracism
hits the social needs of the employees that b ecome the reason for lower performance. On the
other hand, existing research claimed that the need to belong is a factor that always remains
active in the ostracized employees (Chung and Yang, 2017;Eck et al., 2017;Yang and Treadway,
2018). When the need to belong in the loop hurts, emp loyees move towards alternate
belongingness.The alternate belongingnessis a source of association adoptedby humans when
they are neglected by natives. Therefore, in this research, it is supposed that when employees
have diminished belongingness, then coworker ostracism may hav e fewer negative effects on
relational social capital. Therefore, in the current empirical inquiry, alternate belongingness has
Coworker
ostracism
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