How does ethical leadership reduce knowledge-hiding behaviors? The roles of task conflict and relationship conflict

Purpose This study aims to investigate how ethical leadership impacts knowledge-hiding behaviors among employees through the mediating roles of task conflict and relational conflict. This work provides further insight into the moderating role of relational conflict in the relationship between task conflict and knowledge-hiding behaviors. Design/methodology/approach Three time-lagged sets of data (N = 354) were collected among employees in Vietnamese firms. The partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was applied to test the research hypotheses. Findings Empirical findings indicate that ethical leadership negatively impacts task conflict, relational conflict and knowledge hiding. Furthermore, task conflict and relational conflict mediates the relation between ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. Practical implications The findings suggest that the managers can reduce knowledge-hiding behaviors among employees by demonstrating ethical behaviors. In addition, the managers should take care to control the conflicts among the employees. Originality/value This research contributes to the literature on knowledge hiding by uncovering the mechanism linking ethical leadership and knowledge-hiding behaviors through task conflict and relational conflict. Additionally, this study extends the current knowledge by investigating the moderating role of relational conflict in the relationship between task conflict and knowledge-hiding behaviors.