Feigned Digital Incompetence as a New Managerial Challenge: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Theoretical background: The “inability” to find an email, complete a form, activate a camera or microphone can not only irritate coworkers but also harm an organization. Pretending incompetence has been frequently reported in social media. However, it is predominantly discussed in the context of marital relationships. Nonetheless, a similar phenomenon has been observed in workplaces. In this paper, feigned digital incompetence construct is proposed. It is anchored in the overlap with knowledge hiding. Purpose of the article: The intent of this paper is to showcase this overlap and outline a future research agenda in the digital context. This paper contributes to the organizational behavior and human resource management literature. It introduces a new construct that is widely discussed in social media but has yet to be thoroughly investigated in management research. Research methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to ensure methodological rigor. Publications containing “feigned incompetence” and “knowledge hiding” were searched within the Web of Science and Scopus databases. These papers were further analyzed to formulate propositions for future research. Main findings: The author identified 336 relevant studies. Analysis of the predominant knowledge hiding scale depicted overlap in the “playing dumb” dimension. Recognizing this overlap, the author advocates for testing scale adaptation and presents a list of constructs, based on selected theories, to be explored in preliminary studies.