Personality and Rationalized Knowledge Hiding Behavior among Bank Staffs in Sri Lanka

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.