The Perception of Employee Exclusion and Knowledge Concealment: The Moderating Role of Job Stress and Job Independence (Research Sample: South Khorasan General Customs Department)

Considering the importance of knowledge management and the investigation of factors related to the phenomenon of knowledge concealment, the present research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of employees' perception of exclusion on knowledge concealment with the moderating role of job stress and job independence. This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive and correlational in terms of data collection method. The statistical population of the research was considered to be the employees of the General Administration of South Khorasan Customs. 150 people were working in this general office in 2022, and according to Morgan's table, 108 of them were selected by simple random sampling. To collect data, standard questionnaires of knowledge concealment, perceived rejection, job stress, and job independence were used, and the validity and reliability of these tools were checked through face validity and construct validity (convergent and divergent validity) and calculation of Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability ( CR) were confirmed. Data were analyzed using descriptive methods and structural equation modeling using SPSS15 and Smart PLS3 statistical software. The findings of the research showed that the perception of employee rejection causes knowledge concealment, and the moderating role of job autonomy was confirmed in the effect of these two variables on each other, but job stress did not have a moderating role in the effect of employee rejection perception on knowledge concealment. According to the results of this research, it can be stated that in order to prevent the phenomenon of knowledge hiding in the organization, managers should behave in such a way that the employees do not feel left out and considering that the variable of job independence in this Communication had a moderating role and reduces the concealment of knowledge, so it is suggested to increase the independence and autonomy of employees in the design or redesign of organizational jobs in cases where other conditions are also available