When Overload Leads to Hiding: How Work Pressure and Competition Suppress Knowledge Sharing

What is it about?

This study investigates why employees who face work overload may become reluctant to share valuable information with their colleagues, engaging instead in knowledge hiding—the deliberate withholding of requested knowledge. Grounded in conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors argue that when employees experience excessive demands on their time and energy, they perceive these conditions as a drain on their personal resources. To protect what remains, they may avoid further depletion by concealing knowledge that others could use. Using two-wave survey data from employees in Indonesia, the study finds that family-unfriendly time demands mediate the link between workload and knowledge hiding. Overworked employees who feel forced to sacrifice family time experience stress and resentment, prompting self-protective knowledge withholding. This effect intensifies in competitive climates, where constant peer comparison heightens resource loss and makes knowledge a guarded asset for maintaining advantage. The findings highlight the importance of designing workloads and performance systems that support, rather than strain, employees’ ability to balance work and family life. Human resource managers can mitigate knowledge hiding by preventing work overload, discouraging excessive internal competition, and fostering inclusive, collaborative cultures that value both performance and well-being.

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Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This research is unique in uncovering how a nonwork-related belief—family-unfriendly time demands—mediates the relationship between work overload and knowledge hiding. It shows that stressors at work spill into employees’ personal domains, and that frustrations about constrained family time can trigger subtle but harmful organizational behaviors. By combining COR theory with the moderating role of competitive climate, the study offers a comprehensive view of how external pressures and internal culture jointly shape employees’ willingness to share or conceal knowledge. It is timely as organizations worldwide grapple with the effects of intensifying workloads, blurred work–family boundaries, and hypercompetitive performance norms. Conducted in Indonesia, the study reflects a rapidly developing economy where long work hours and relational obligations often collide. Its insights encourage managers to rethink performance systems that glorify competition and overload, advocating instead for cultures that protect employees’ time, energy, and trust—so that knowledge flows freely even under pressure.