Explaining the Role of Female Employees’ Psychological Safety in the Relationship between Knowledge Hiding and Job Performance and Helping Behaviors: Moderating Role of Organizational Cynicism

In modern communities, the importance of women’s participation is to such an extent that achieving development is unexpected without their presence. Women play a remarkable role in the success of organizations due to a set of personality and innate characteristics, including a broad vision of the future, high administrative discipline, and their ability to motivate their colleagues and communicate with them as the life of an organization depends on the accurate performance of its personnel. Another critical factor in the success of organizations is the existence of employees who go beyond their job descriptions to help their colleagues. Though studies have shown that women are more likely than men to be involved in helping behaviors others argue that helping behaviors bring about challenges like the risk of emotional exhaustion or the reduced power of the helpful party to complete their official duties. Nonetheless, investigations have shown that employees who achieve success in their work may have more cognitive resources to participate in social behaviors and perform their occupational duties in a better way. Thus, job success can be considered an effective factor in helping behaviors and performance at work. However, some studies have shown that women experience lower levels of energy and enthusiasm at work. One of the most basic causes of that situation is the unfair interference of biological differences between men and women in occupational fields in addition to stereotypical attitudes and prejudices. an important consideration that should not be overlooked is that the feelings of security, justice, self-sufficiency, and autonomy matter a lot for women and increase their efficiency at work. Consequently, female employees’ mental security is a matter that requires urgent attention. On the other hand, knowledge is one of the main resources that each organization can utilize to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage, and the role played by women should not be overlooked in that regard. Though managers expect their employees to freely share their knowledge, it should not be forgotten that knowledge hiding is a common phenomenon, as well, and can significantly harm relationships in workplaces. Based on the above discussion, the present study contributed to the literature on organizational behavior and human resources in the field of women. First, it referred to the role of mental security as it could create a positive atmosphere and reduce the negative consequence of knowledge hiding, with a remarkable role in enhancing the efficiency of individuals and their colleagues at work. Another contribution of the present study concerned the role of female employees’ attitudes in professional relationships.

 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK :

Knowledge hiding refers to a conscious attempt by people to hide or prevent expressing knowledge that has been requested by someone else. Mental security indicates the feeling that people can present and utilize their abilities without any fear of losing their faces or positions or experiencing other negative consequences. The relationship between knowledge hiding and mental security can be illustrated using Bem’s Self-perception theory. The theory argues that people are involved in a process of self-attribution after carrying out a certain behavior and contemplating the action and the conditions leading to it. Scholars believe this can be attributed to the area of hidden knowledge in which the lack of mental security or similar conditions (for the individuals themselves or other people) extensively specifies the conditions under which hidden behaviors occur.Success is defined as a psychological condition where people experience both feelings of liveliness and learning in their workplaces. Liveliness and joy can be considered the energy coming from job attachment, while learning is the result of acquiring new skills and knowledge. In other words, when employees are provided with working conditions having certain resources like communication and knowledge resources or social structure characteristics like information sharing and an atmosphere of respect, they are likely to experience job success.The existence of mental security reduces employees’ likely concerns and allows them to concentrate on their duties. Moreover, it drives them toward active participation in communicative acts and the collection of feedback from others and boosts dynamic social interactions among employees. Thus, it can be claimed that mental security is a prerequisite for employees’ success at work.Helping behaviors are defined as voluntary assistance offered to colleagues to fulfill one’s goals or prevent the emergence of problems, while job performance can be considered the intended values of an organization that people carry out within a specified period. Employees who experience job success are more likely to develop in their jobs, have more enthusiasm toward their positions, and, at the same time, improve their relationships with their colleagues. Thus, they are expected to show more helping behaviors. In this way, job success makes employees keep away from egocentrism and help others out of altruism. Job success is accompanied by feelings of liveliness and learning, which in turn result in improved performance. Thus, job success is a significant factor influencing the emergence of helping behaviors and the improvement of individual performance.Organizational pessimism is a negative reflection of one’s attitudes and beliefs toward an organization. People who have pessimistic views toward their organizations are more likely to hide their knowledge due to risky or uncertain conditions so that they may preserve their sense of mental security.

The present research was an applied study in terms of purpose, and in terms of method, it was a survey. The variables were investigated using the statistics standardized in the previous studies. Moreover, the validity of the constructs of the utilized questionnaires was evaluated using the confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS, and the significance of the items relevant to the intended constructs was confirmed. The level of analysis in the study was individual. The statistical population was comprised of all female employees in the public offices of Mashhad, Iran, out of whom 386 questionnaires were collected. The data were analyzed using various statistical procedures, including Pearson’s correlation coefficient to calculate the zero-order correlation coefficients and Structural Equation Modeling to investigate the fit of the structural equation model with the collected data.

As a prerequisite for the utilization of latent variables in structural equation modeling is the existence of a correlation between variables, Pearson’s correlation analysis was carried out. The obtained coefficients indicated that the pairwise relationship between all variables was significant at p<0.01. Moreover, the factor loadings of the items of the questionnaire were calculated using the confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS. As all factor loadings were significant in the fit model of confirmatory factor analysis, no item was eliminated from the analysis stage. Furthermore, all fit indicators were investigated, and it was shown that they enjoyed convenient fit. The hypotheses were investigated using p-value and t-value, and it was shown that, for all hypotheses in the study, the values obtained for the first and second indicators were below 0.05 and beyond the range of ±1.96, respectively. The moderating role of organizational pessimism was investigated using the adjusted regression analysis, and the hypothesized moderating impact was confirmed.

CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS :

The present study aimed to investigate causal relationships between knowledge hiding, mental security, job success, and employees’ pessimism toward their organizations, and the data were collected from female employees in public offices in Mashhad, Iran. As predicted by the first hypothesis, it was shown that knowledge hiding negatively affects the mental security of female employees. In this way, it could be argued that hiding prevented organizational development due to its negative impacts on mental security. Concerning the second hypothesis, it was shown that knowledge hiding reduces job success. To reduce knowledge hiding, managers of human resources are suggested to establish contexts like work groups so that employees can both express their views and get familiar with what they should and should do at work. The third finding of the study showed that mental security had a significant impact on employees’ job success. Thus, it could be argued that as the positive resources created at the workplace increase, employees are more likely to actualize their capabilities toward effective behaviors. Concerning the fourth and fifth hypotheses, the effect of job success on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior was confirmed. Testing the mediating variables showed that mental security mediated the relationship between knowledge hiding and job success. Moreover, the mediating role of job success in the relationship between knowledge hiding and job performance and helping behaviors was confirmed. Ultimately, the moderating role of organizational pessimism was confirmed. The results showed that increasing organizational pessimism exacerbated the negative impacts of knowledge hiding on mental security. As employees’ pessimistic views indicate that justice and honesty are missing according to them (or may reduce in the future), managers need to ensure their employees that such basic principles will never be violated and take steps toward the expansion of justice and equity in their organizations.