Sharing and hiding knowledge under pandemics: The role of stressor appraisals, perceived supervisor behaviors and attributions of supervisor motives

Abstract This study aims to shed light on the dual impact of appraisals of pandemic‐induced job stressors on employee knowledge sharing and hiding behaviors. Drawing on the transactional attribution model, we hypothesize that employee perceptions of supervisor compassionate and self‐serving behavior would positively mediate the impact of employee challenge and hindrance appraisals of pandemic‐induced job stressors on employee knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding, respectively. Moreover, stressor appraisals are expected to interact with employee attributions of supervisor compassionate and self‐serving motives in shaping perceptions of supervisor compassionate and self‐serving behavior, respectively. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two independent studies—a three‐wave full longitudinal study with 230 employees from UK and U.S. firms during the first COVID‐19 outbreak and a randomized scenario‐based experiment with 210 U.S. employees. Cross‐lagged structural equation analyses, analyses of variance, and path analyses fully supported our predictions, thus providing a nuanced understanding of the role of perceived supervisor behavior and attributions of supervisor motives in accounting for the differential effects of employee appraisals of pandemic‐induced job stressors on knowledge behaviors.