Understanding knowledge-hiding and its role in intersectional academia

This chapter first aims to provide an overview of the knowledge-hiding concept by highlighting its origin and discussing some overlapping constructs. Secondly, it explains knowledge-hiding at the workplace and discusses the two levels identified in the literature, that is, horizontal and vertical knowledge-hiding. In doing so, we summarise the existing findings and their role in knowledge management practices in contemporary organisations. Thirdly, we discuss the existence of knowledge-hiding in academia, a specific work environment built on solid foundations, and a philosophy of knowledge sharing. We further identify and explain some antecedents and outcomes of knowledge-hiding in academia to understand why academics are involved in such behaviour and how it impacts individual and organisational results. In addition, we discuss knowledge-hiding in the case of students and highlight some antecedents, outcomes, and mitigating factors of student knowledge-hiding. Finally, we discuss the role of individuals' demographics in causing knowledge-hiding behaviour by looking at the effect of gender and local versus foreign (i.e., employee nationality), concluding with intersectionality as a critical area of future research in knowledge-hiding literature.