Knowledge hiding, emotional exhaustion and job performance: the role of psychological resilience

Purpose As an emerging novelty, knowledge hiding has received considerable attention in management literature. Drawing on conversation of resources theory, this study aims to investigate how knowledge hiding impacts job performance among employees through the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. This work further offers deeper insight into the moderating mechanism of psychological resilience in these relationships. Design/methodology/approach Three time-lagged sets of data ( N = 362) were collected among employees in Vietnamese firms. The partial least squares structural equation modeling method was applied to test the research hypotheses. Findings Empirical findings indicate that knowledge hiding positively impacts emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, emotional exhaustion serves a mediating role in the link between knowledge hiding and job performance. The results also show how psychological resilience moderates the relations between knowledge hiding, emotional exhaustion and job performance. Practical implications The findings suggest that managers can reduce the harms of knowledge-hiding behaviors by enriching employees’ resources and bolstering their psychological resilience. Originality/value This inquiry explores the mechanism linking knowledge-hiding behaviors and job performance through the mediator of emotional exhaustion. In addition, this study extends the current knowledge by investigating the moderating role of psychological resilience in the relations between knowledge-hiding, emotional exhaustion and job performance.