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Role stress, emotional exhaustion, and knowledge hiding: The joint moderating effects of network centrality and structural holes

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Abstract

Little research to date has focused on a social network perspective in the field of knowledge hiding. Therefore, based on a three-wave examination of 222 Chinese employees, we integrated affective events theory and social network theory to investigate how individual network positions become cogent boundary conditions in the process of role stress influencing knowledge hiding through emotional exhaustion. Results revealed that role stress affected knowledge hiding through emotional exhaustion. We further posited that network centrality negatively moderated the effect of role stress on emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, structural holes positively moderated the effect of role stress on emotional exhaustion. Finally, network centrality and structural holes jointly moderated the indirect effect of role stress on knowledge hiding through emotional exhaustion, such that the indirect effect is stronger when low network centrality combined with high structural holes.

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Funding

This study is supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Numbers: 71772116).

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  1. School of Management, Shanghai University, No. 99 Shangda Road, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Hongdan Zhao & Jiarui Jiang

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  1. Hongdan Zhao
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Correspondence to Hongdan Zhao.

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Zhao, H., Jiang, J. Role stress, emotional exhaustion, and knowledge hiding: The joint moderating effects of network centrality and structural holes. Curr Psychol 41, 8829–8841 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01348-9

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