Linking organizational AI adoption to employee knowledge behaviours: the influences of appraisals and locus of control

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been widely recognized as the pivotal force driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Its formidable capabilities have prompted a surge in organization adoption. However, there remains a notable lack of research exploring the ramifications of organizational AI adoption within the realm of knowledge management, particularly its impact on employees’ knowledge strategies. To address this gap, this study adopts the transactional theory of stress and coping and JD-R theory to examine how and under what conditions organizational AI adoption stimulates the complexities of knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding among employees. This study collected survey data from 324 research and development employees in China over three distinct time points. The findings reveal that the influence of organizational AI adoption on employees’ challenge or hindrance appraisals, and consequently their knowledge behaviours, hinges on their locus of control. Specifically, employees with an internal locus of control tend to view organizational AI adoption as a challenge, which subsequently encourages knowledge sharing (motivational process). Conversely, those with an external locus of control perceive organizational AI adoption as a hindrance, ultimately leading to knowledge hiding (strain process). The implications of these findings for both theory and practice are discussed.