Knowledge withholding intentions in teams: the roles of normative conformity, affective bonding, rational choice and social cognition

The decision of members in a knowledge-intensive team to withhold their knowledge may threaten the performance of the team. To address the problem of knowledge resource risk in project teams, we maintain that it is important to understand why team members choose to withhold their knowledge, conceptualized as knowledge-withholding intention. In line with the literature on effort withholding, the research on multifoci relations between justice perceptions and social exchanges, and social cognitive theory, we proposed that the social exchange relationships that individuals form in the workplace, their perceptions of justice, and their knowledge withholding self-efficacy would influence their knowledge-withholding intentions. Through a survey of 227 information system development team workers, we found that all social exchange relationship variables had a significant impact on knowledge-withholding intentions. However, the justice perception variables only indirectly influenced knowledge-withholding intentions through the mediation of social exchange relationships. In addition, one of the task variables, task interdependence, influenced knowledge withholding intention through the mediation of knowledge withholding self-efficacy. Our results contribute to the knowledge management literature by providing a better understanding of the antecedents of knowledge withholding. We also offer suggestions for future research utilizing the framework of Kidwell and Bennett (1993) to study effort and knowledge withholding

Cognitive Offloading Strategies and Decrements in Learning: Lessons from Aviation and Aerospace Crises

Examples from aviation and aerospace illustrate the potential consequences that emerge when organizations replace learning from experience with technology, a process referred to as a cognitive offloading strategy (COS). Examples include the Air France Flight 447 crash involving an Airbus 330-203 and the Lion Air Flight 610 crash involving a Boeing 737 Max. From the perspective of human performance in extreme environments, COS represents an underexplored source of organizational vulnerability which presents a particular challenge for learning in organizations. Decrements in learning result from COS because COS creates gaps in procedural knowledge and deprives operators of opportunities to learn in the face of event-induced stress. Due to the inevitability of COS in extreme environments, recommendations for building resilience include offering training scenarios that support the development of a positive stress response, facilitating the ability to learn in the face of uncertainty, and supporting highly engaged experiential learning to build procedural (and often tacit) knowledge of operations

Five routines that help leaders learn

Leadership involves learning to face new and more challenging goals, but past success can result in developing counterproductive attitudes toward learning. Four counterproductive attitudes that often arise from past success include overconfidence, expectations of top performance, belief in consistent and predictable progress, and overvaluing the role of mental toughness. We propose five strategies to help leaders overcome these counterproductive attitudes that we call learning routines: 1) generating positive emotions when facing new challenges, 2) seeking creative solutions to problems, 3) believing you can learn in the face of frustration, challenge, and setbacks, 4) approaching new problems with flexibility, and 5) seeking feedback, coaching, and developmental opportunities. Research and theory-based approaches are proposed for cultivating these five routines to support leadership development and practice