My colleague was born with a silver spoon: curvilinear indirect effects of family socioeconomic status social comparison on knowledge hiding

Purpose Higher family socioeconomic status often provides personal and professional advantages, motivating employees to engage in comparisons with coworkers from more privileged family backgrounds. Yet little is known about how such comparisons shape workplace interactions. This study investigates how upward family socioeconomic status social comparison influences knowledge hiding. Drawing on social comparison theory and research on prosocial motivation, a moderated nonlinear mediation model was developed. Upward family socioeconomic status social comparison is proposed to affect envy in an inverted U-shaped pattern, with envy subsequently promoting knowledge hiding. Prosocial motivation is expected to weaken the positive link between envy and knowledge hiding. Design/methodology/approach A three-time point survey study with 271 working adults was conducted. Path analysis was conducted to test the proposed moderated nonlinear mediation model. Findings An inverted U-shaped relationship emerged between upward family socioeconomic status social comparison and envy, with employees from lower family socioeconomic status experiencing the highest envy toward coworkers with moderately, rather than significantly, higher family socioeconomic status. Additionally, envy positively predicted knowledge hiding only when employees exhibited lower prosocial motivation. Originality/value This study introduces family socioeconomic status as a novel social comparison dimension, underscores the significance of relative family socioeconomic status for interpersonal interactions at work and extends existing upward comparison literature by revealing a curvilinear relationship between family socioeconomic status social comparison and envy–thus moving beyond the predominant linear perspective. Additionally, we advance knowledge management research by identifying family socioeconomic status social comparison as a novel antecedent of knowledge hiding.