Impostor leader and knowledge hiding: Attachment avoidance as underlying mechanism.

Area of Science:

• Organizational Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Impostorism and knowledge-hiding behaviors detrimentally affect employees and organizational outcomes.
• Understanding the dynamics between leadership behaviors and employee knowledge management is crucial for organizational success.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between impostor leaders and subordinate knowledge-hiding behaviors.
• To examine the mediating role of attachment avoidance in the impostor leader-knowledge hiding association.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative analysis of data from 429 individuals across multiple organizations using a two-time lag survey design.
• Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS-4 software was employed for data analysis.

Main Results:

• Impostor leaders significantly promote knowledge hiding among subordinates.
• Rationalized hiding behavior is most strongly promoted by impostor leaders.
• Attachment avoidance mediates the link between impostor leaders and knowledge hiding, with the highest mediation observed for playing dumb behavior.

Conclusions:

• Impostor leadership contributes to knowledge-hiding behaviors, impacting organizational dynamics.
• Attachment avoidance plays a significant mediating role in this relationship.
• Findings offer insights for managing impostorism and knowledge hiding in the workplace, reinforcing social exchange theory principles.