Date of Award

Winter 3-22-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Daniels College of Business

First Advisor

Dennis Wittmer

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Generational knowledge, Knowledge hiding, Identity

Abstract

This dissertation explores how generations influence knowledge-hiding (KH) behaviors in the workplace, with identity salience and ethical leadership examined as potential moderators. Drawing from social identity theory and social learning theory, I hypothesized that generational identities, shaped by ingroup favoritism and outgroup bias, would drive KH behaviors across generations. Identity salience was expected to amplify KH tendencies, while supervisory ethical leadership was proposed to mitigate KH behaviors through moral role modeling. Survey data from 463 Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y employees working in knowledge-intensive U.S. industries were analyzed using hierarchical regressions. Results indicate that generation (operationalized as age) significantly predicted evasive hiding and playing dumb behaviors, but not rationalized hiding, and not in the directions hypothesized. Additionally, employees did not engage in more KH when interacting with younger or older generations. Neither identity salience nor ethical leadership moderated the generation-KH relationship. Effect sizes were small, limiting the practical relevance of findings. Taken together, these results suggest that meaningful generational differences in employees’ KH behaviors may not exist. Contributions, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.

Copyright Date

3-2025

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Jacqueline L. Patten

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

125 pgs

File Size

1.6 MB

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Available for download on Friday, April 23, 2027



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