The Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Negative Workplace Gossip On Knowledge Hiding Behavior

With the advent of the era of knowledge economy and the age of information,the important role of knowledge resources in enterprise development and social progress has become increasingly prominent,while in reality,knowledge hiding in organizations is widespread,seriously affecting the sustainable and healthy development of organizations,so scholars began to explore the antecedents of knowledge hiding.As a common social phenomenon,gossip is considered to be an important means for employees to obtain information,and in the workplace situation,the probability of negative gossip is much higher than that of positive gossip,which has destructive characteristics and has a certain impact on employees’ psychology and behavior.Since the gossip target is the party being talked about in the gossip information network,and the gossip content is closely related to it,the current research focuses on the negative effects on the gossip target,such as inducing negative emotions,generating emotional exhaustion,reducing active behavior and innovative behavior.As one of the subjects of the gossip information network,gossip recipients are also worth exploring how they interpret such information when they hear gossip talking about negative gossip in the workplace,and how they affect their attitude towards gossip and subsequent behavior choices.Therefore,from the perspective of gossip recipients and based on social information processing theory,this study adds the mediating variable of relation identity to the relationship between negative workplace gossip and the knowledge hiding behavior of gossip recipients,and opens the black box of negative workplace gossip to the knowledge hiding behavior of gossip recipients.At the same time,the moderator of perspective taking is added to explore how it intervenes in the process.In terms of research methods,through literature review and empirical analysis methods,this study first sorts out the relevant literature on negative gossip,relationship identity,knowledge hiding behavior and viewpoint selection in the workplace at home and abroad,finds feasible entry points,puts forward research questions,constructs theoretical models according to relevant theories,and puts forward research hypotheses.Then,in order to verify whether the hypothesis is true or not,this study uses domestic and foreign maturity scales,designs questionnaires,and finally collects 272 valid questionnaires.Finally,with the help of SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 28.0 software,descriptive statistical analysis,reliability and validity test,correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were carried out,the relationship between the variables was verified,and whether the research hypothesis was valid,and management practice suggestions were put forward based on this.Through empirical research,the following results are obtained:(1)Negative workplace gossip has a positive predictive effect on the knowledge hiding behavior of gossip recipients.(2)Negative workplace gossip increases knowledge hiding behavior by reducing the gossip recipient’s relation identity with the gossip,that is,relation identity mediates the relationship between negative workplace gossip and knowledge hiding behavior.(3)Perspective taking moderates the relationship between negative workplace gossip and relation identity,such that the negative relationship is stronger when perspective taking is higher than it is lower.(4)Perspective taking moderates the indirect relationship between negative workplace gossip and knowledge hiding via relation identity.Based on the above conclusions,this study puts forward the following suggestions for management practice: first,managers should pay attention to the important role of gossip recipients in suppressing negative gossip behavior in the workplace,and open anonymous channels and other reasonable ways to give feedback,so as to avoid the spiral influence of negative behaviors such as knowledge hiding;Second,create a positive and healthy corporate culture;At the same time,build a smooth and perfect communication mechanism to guide the establishment of good interpersonal relationships;Finally,the human resource management department pays attention to the improvement of employees’ perspective taking ability.This study has the following four innovations:(1)This study reveals the impact of negative gossip in the workplace on another important group,gossip recipients,which is a useful supplement to the study of negative gossip in the workplace from the perspective of gossip recipients.(2)This study focuses on the behavioral response of gossip recipients to gossipers,and constructs a bilateral interpersonal interaction model of “sender-receiver” in the process of gossip transmission,so that we can better understand the impact of negative gossip in the workplace on the complexity of social networks in organizations.(3)Based on the theory of social information processing,this study discovers the black box key between negative gossip in the workplace and the hiding behavior of gossip recipients.(4)Perspective taking as a personal trait,this study discusses its moderating effect on the negative impact of negative workplace gossip,and expands the research direction of perspective taking.