Individual Knowledge Sabotage Antecedents: A Multilevel Analysis

Knowledge sharing (KSH) has been highlighted as the principal knowledge management (KM) process, since it allows organizations to leverage knowledge-based resources in order to obtain a competitive advantage (Wang and Noe, 2010). However, this key process suffers from several counterproductive workplace behavior (CWB) that often remain uncharted pitfalls (Spector et al., 2006). Among them, knowledge sabotage (KSA) has been identified as one of the darker side of KSH which, to date, remains mostly unexplored (Serenko, 2019; Ferraris and Perotti, 2020). In fact, no studies have ever been proposed regarding the antecedents of this phenomenon. The purpose of this research is therefore to identify the role of certain personality traits (i.e., Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness) with respect to KSA occurrences at individual level, and introduce team cohesiveness as an empowering and corrective group level factor. Overall, we are willing to contribute to KSA theoretical development by providing a multilevel empirical analysis and offer useful insights to managers who want to prevent this harmful counterproductive behavior, as well.