Illegitimate tasks, knowledge hiding, and performance erosion: a four-wave latent change score investigation

This four-wave longitudinal study reframes unnecessary and unreasonable tasks as relational stimuli. Latent change score modeling on 250 employees (1 month intervals) showed that within-person increases in unnecessary tasks heightened knowledge hiding (β = 0.30-0.32), which subsequently eroded task performance (indirect effect = -0.12 to-0.14). Unreasonable tasks exerted comparable indirect harm (indirect = -0.11 to-0.12) but carried no significant direct effect on performance (β = -0.08, <i>p</i> = 0.183). Thus, both forms of illegitimate tasks damage later performance solely through the amplification of knowledge hiding, challenging static "stressor-strain" assumptions and underscoring the need to curb defective task design before collaborative exchanges are undermined.