Negative workplace gossip and knowledge hiding: roles of duty orientation and psychological entitlement

Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study examined the impact of negative workplace gossip on targets’ knowledge hiding behaviours. We also examined the mediating role of duty orientation and the moderating role of psychological entitlement on the relationship between negative workplace gossip and knowledge hiding behaviours. We adopted a mixed-method research design involving a scenario experiment (Study 1) and a two-wave survey study (Study 2). The results showed that negative workplace gossip has a positive association with knowledge hiding behaviours and this relationship was mediated by duty orientation. In addition, psychological entitlement strengthens the negative influence of negative workplace gossip on duty orientation. However, the indirect effect of negative workplace gossip on knowledge hiding behaviours through duty orientation is stronger for employees with high psychological entitlement as compared to those having low levels of psychological entitlement.