I feel threatened so I hide: extended mechanism between perceived organizational politics and knowledge hiding

Knowledge hiding occurs in every workplace setting, including medical hospitals, where it can produce irreversible errors threatening lives. However, specific research to date on how knowledge hiding occurs in medical hospitals is sparse. Drawing on the conservation of resources and moral disengagement theories, this research proposes an extended explanatory mechanism between perceived organizational politics and knowledge hiding. Using a time-lagged design, quantitative data were collected from 261 doctors working in different departments of government hospitals in Pakistan through face-to-face and online modes. Key findings reveal that, taken together, employee state paranoia and moral disengagement partially mediate the relationship between perceived organizational politics and knowledge hiding. Findings imply that if unaddressed, organizational politics can create poisonous environment that harms well-being, performance, morale, and humanity. This emphasizes how critical it is for healthcare management to promote a transparent and trustworthy culture where knowledge can be openly shared to help and heal people.