Citizenship pressure and knowledge hiding: The mediating role of citizenship fatigue and the moderating role of supervisor–subordinate guanxi

Abstract

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, we examine the relationship between citizenship pressure and knowledge hiding, exploring the underlying mechanism between the two through citizenship fatigue and supervisor–subordinate guanxi. Two three‐wave sets of data were collected and analyzed with PROCESS. Study 1 revealed that employees' perceived pressure to engage in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) can lead them to experience citizenship fatigue and to seek to conserve resources through deceptively hiding knowledge (i.e., evasive hiding and playing dumb). However, rationalized hiding will not be adopted by employees as a strategy to reserve resources under citizenship pressure. Supervisor–subordinate guanxi also serves as a reverse moderator, in that high guanxi mitigates the direct impact of citizenship pressure on citizenship fatigue and the indirect impact of citizenship pressure on evasive hiding and playing dumb through citizenship fatigue. Study 2 replicated and extended the findings of Study 1 by considering the negative affect as a potential mediator and the leader–member exchange (LMX) as a potential moderator. The findings show that citizenship pressure has a positive effect on evasive hiding and playing dumb through the mediating role of citizenship fatigue; and supervisor–subordinate guanxi negatively moderates the positive effect of citizenship pressure on citizenship fatigue and the mediating effect of citizenship fatigue, whereas LMX has no significant moderating effect on these linkages. This research advances our understanding of the “dark side” of OCB and enriches knowledge hiding studies by introducing a new predictor about extra‐role work stressors.