지식을 효과적으로 창출하고 활용하기 위해서는 구성원간의 지식공유가 필수적이라는 인식하에 기업들은 지식공유를 활성화하기 위해 많은 노력을 하고 있다. 그러나 예상과는 달리 조직 내 지식공유는 원활하게 이루어지지 않는 경우가 많고, 조직구성원들도 지식공유 만이 아니라 지식은폐 행동을 보일 가능성 또한 배제할 수 없다. 본 연구는 지식 집약적 사회에서 지식경영이 중요한 전략으로 대두됨에 따라 조직의 지속가능성에 영향을 줄 수 있는 구성원의 지식공유와 지식은폐를 함께 살펴보고자 한다. 지식공유와 지식은폐에 영향을 줄 수 있는 선행요인으로 지식영역성, 과업상호의존성, 조직보상을 고려하였다. 뿐만 아니라 지식공유와 지식은폐로 인한 결과변수로는 창의성을 고려하였다. 연구가설의 검증을 위하여 광주․전남 지역의 제조, 서비스, 금융, 통신, 의료/제약 분야의 24개 조직 300명의 종업원과 그들의 직속상사를 대상으로 설문 조사를 실시하였고, 회수된 설문지 중 상사 자료가 없거나, 불성실한 응답 경향이 뚜렷한 설문지를 제외한 22개 조직 210명의 종업원 설문자료가 최종분석에 이용되었으며 그 결과는 다음과 같다. 먼저, 지식공유에 있어 지식영역성은 부(-)의 영향을, 과업상호의존성과 보상은 지식공유에 유의한 정(+)의 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 지식공유에 있어 신뢰 및 상호작용의 중요함을 재 입증 한 것으로 지식공유 활성화를 위한 협력 및 분위기 조성 등의 조직차원의 지원이 필요함 보여주는 것이다. 둘째, 지식영역성은 지식은폐에 유의한 정(+)의 영향을 주는 것으로 확인하였다. 지식영역성이 강하게 구축 된 개인은 자신의 지식을 지키고, 방어하기 위하여 지식을 감추고자 하는 행동을 보인다는 것이다. 셋째, 지식공유는 창의성에 유의한 정(+)의 영향을, 지식은폐는 창의성에 유의한 부(-)의 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 구성원들 간의 지식공유는 직무수행에 있어 활용할 수 있는 지식 및 정보를 제공하여 문제에 대한 이해를 높이고, 새로운 아이디어를 창출할 수 있는 기회를 마련함으로써 창의성에 긍정적인 영향을 보인다는 것이다. 이와는 대조적으로 지식은폐의 경우 구성원들 간의 불신으로 인한 악순환적인 구조에 따라 자신의 한정된 지식을 사용할 수밖에 없게 되어 과업수행 또는 문제해결에 있어 부정적인 관계를 갖게 되는 것으로 볼 수 있다. 연구결과를 토대로 연구의 한계 및 향후 연구방향을 제시하였다.
Creativity has been acknowledged as a fundamental driver that serves as a basis for individuals’ groups’, and organizations’ pursuit of innovative efforts as crucial in improving performance and achieving continuous competitive advantage. Research on organizational creativity emphasize the importance of knowledge sharing in stimulating individual creativity. Despite the organizational benefits of knowledge sharing among employees, many workers are reluctant to share their knowledge with their colleagues. Thus, how to stimulate creative behavior in workplace is therefore a highly relevant issue. Most organizations have taken a lot of actions to facilitate knowledge sharing among employees, including developing reward systems, enhancing social networks and interpersonal relationships and crafting organizational cultures that support knowledge sharing. To date, however, limited attention has been paid to knowledge hiding to explain the failure of creativity enhancement initiatives in organization. The purpose of this study is to consider knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding simultaneously, and to explore the conditions under which employees are inclined to share or hide knowledge and what the consequences of these behavior might be. Specifically, we examine how knowledge-based psychological territoriality, task interdependence and organizational reward have an impact on employees’ knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding. Also, we explore employee creativity as the consequences of knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding. To test the proposed hypotheses in our study, we collected data via a survey with a sample of 210 employees and their 77 supervisors. The major findings of the empirical research are as follows: 1) as hypothesized, knowledge-based psychological territoriality was negatively associated with knowledge sharing and positively associated with knowledge hiding. 2) Task interdependence and organizational reward were positively associated with knowledge sharing but was not associated with knowledge hiding. 3) As was expected, knowledge sharing was positively associated with creative outcomes. Also, knowledge hiding was negatively associated with creative outcomes. 4) Additionally knowledge sharing had more directive relationship with creative outcomes than knowledge hiding. Our study aims to make key contribution to the literature on organizational creativity and knowledge management by considering knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding simultaneously. In addition, we explore the differential antecedents and outcomes for the two distinct types of knowledge behavior. This study provides further evidence that knowledge hiding occurs in organizations and leads to detrimental outcomes amongst employees. The act of knowledge hiding can limit the productive transfer of knowledge in organizations and leads to detrimental effects on employee creativity. Organizations and employees alike should be aware of these negative consequences and strive to limit the incidence of knowledge hiding in organizations. As a means of decreasing the incidence of knowledge hiding in organizations, increasing the frequency of social interaction and communication between parties might help employees to collaborate more effectively, and to mitigate the negative consequences of knowledge hiding. By understanding how employees construe knowledge hiding, and limiting the expression of this behaviour, organizations can reap the benefits of knowledge sharing. As with all research, this study is exploratory in nature and has many limitations. Given the small sample of the firms in Korea, caution must be exercised in attempting to interpret findings and to generalize the recommendations. Thus, the results proposed in this study must be validated by further research in diverse research settings. The cross-sectional data used in this study also makes it difficult to examine the relation between cause-and-effect involving continuing interactions among participants. In-depth case analyses and a process approach with a longitudinal analysis are needed. Finally, additional research is certainly required to more fully understand the consequences of knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding, and other potential variables, including interpersonal dynamics and situational factors that may influence the emergence of these behaviors, should be included in future research.