Abstract:
Knowledge management is much important in today’s world. The concept called “knowledge hiding”
destroys proper knowledge management. Among three dimensions of knowledge-hiding behavior (playing dumb,
evasive hiding, rationalized hiding), this particular study focuses on rationalized knowledge-hiding behavior.
Individuals engage in rationalized knowledge hiding by providing an explanation as to why the information will
not be forthcoming. On the other hand, studies have identified that personality determines behavior. Therefore,
this particular study argues that the personality of people impacts rationalized knowledge-hiding behavior. This
is a quantitative study and the data were collected from 239 government and private executive bank staff in Sri
Lanka through a questionnaire. Junior and senior executive bank staff were incorporated in this study as they deal
with considerable knowledge transactions. Findings revealed that all the big five personality traits have an impact
on rationalized knowledge hiding. The researcher believes that the findings will attract practitioners in the
education context as well as in the organization context.
