Development and validation of knowledge hiding motivation scale

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate knowledge hiding motivation scale. First, in preliminary study, using the open-ended survey research method, 89 cases were collected from 200 employees who were working in a variety of organizations in Korea. After eliminating overlapped and unintended cases of knowledge hiding, 42 cases in five categories(rationalization, ownership, competition, avoidance, and relation) were obtained. Based on the previous theory, we removed one category(rationalization) and constructed 34 items from cases. Then, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis to find out factor structure of knowledge hiding motivation using the responses of 193 employees from a variety of organizations in Korea. After eliminating low factor loading item and double loaded items, 17 items were obtained in the structure of four factors(personal ownership, fear of loss, concern for negative evaluation, and negative relation). Then, we conducted an confirmatory factor analysis using the responses of 300 employees from a variety of organizations in Korea, and found the four factor structure of 17 items was valid. Also, we examined convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity of knowledge hiding motivation scale. In order to examine the convergent validity, we identified the relationship between each subfactor of knowledge hiding motivation and psychological ownership, interpersonal competitiveness, fear of negative evaluation, and negative reciprocity. As a result, personal ownership has a significant correlation with psychological ownership, fear of loss has a significant correlation with interpersonal competitiveness, concern for negative evaluation has a significant correlation with fear of negative evaluation, and negative relation has a significant correlation with negative reciprocity. We examined whether knowledge hiding motivation can be distinguished from other similar constructs such as knowledge sharing intention, knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing, and knowledge hoarding. As a result, we found that knowledge hiding motivation can be well discriminated with knowledge sharing intention, knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing, and knowledge hoarding. In order to testify the criterion-related validity, we examined the relationship between knowledge hiding motivation and knowledge hiding. As a result, we confirmed that knowledge hiding motivation has a significant relationship with knowledge hiding. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study were discussed, and the future research directions were suggested.