Is the colleague just playing dumb or does he really not know the answer? Where knowledge is deliberately kept to oneself in professional contexts, this is known as knowledge hiding. How does this happen? What helps against that?
Without the help of colleagues, it is often not possible to get on with your job. If a team member blocks or claims not to know the answer, this is known as knowledge hiding - the conscious withholding of knowledge that another person is asking for.
"Many people don't know the term, but when I explain it, everyone says: Yes, I've experienced it before or done it myself," says Florian Offergelt, Assistant Professor for Leadership and Organizational Knowledge Management at the Austrian private university Schloss Seeburg.
A distinction is made between different forms of knowledge hiding. When someone acts like they don't have the answers, that's called playing dumb, says Offergelt. A second form is evasive hiding, i.e. evasive behavior. It occurs when people only partially share requested knowledge, evade their response to the request, or claim to provide the knowledge at a later date.
The third form is Rationalized Hiding, i.e. rationalized hiding of information that must not be passed on. So there is not always bad intention behind knowledge hiding. When it comes to salary information or patient data, it may well be necessary to keep information to yourself.
Another reason is that some people are afraid of losing their expert status, says Offergelt. "They don't want to make themselves replaceable by sharing knowledge. Some people develop a real sense of ownership of 'their' knowledge, which is then called territoriality."
There can actually be personal advantages in not sharing information, says Laura Venz, Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Leuphana University in Lüneburg. "If I'm working in a team that has an elbow-jerk mentality and I know that only one person can be promoted, I might be more likely to keep things to myself."
If the workload and time pressure in the company are very high, sometimes there simply isn't enough time and energy to answer inquiries. "Even if I would like to help, I may not have the capacity to do so."
Other triggers for knowledge hiding have their origins in the social sphere - for example hostilities between colleagues. Perhaps you want to get even with someone who has kept knowledge to himself. A chain reaction of jealous behavior and a climate of distrust could develop, says Sebastian Mangold.
The economist did his doctorate on the subject of knowledge hiding at the Technical University of Munich. In his dissertation, he found that colleagues are influenced when a person does not share information with others. "When such behavior is observed, they think: Aha, that's how we do it."
Another reason for knowledge hiding can be competitive pressure between different locations of a company. It happens that employees want to cooperate, but the exchange is prevented by the management level. Individual bonuses and performance bonuses play a role here. "In this way, the goals of individuals can harm the entire organization," says Mangold.
Hiding knowledge can have significant financial implications, says Florian Offergelt. "There are projections that for the top 500 companies in the US alone, the opportunity cost of not sharing knowledge is as much as $30 billion every year."
These lost profits occur, among other things, because trends are overlooked or employees show reduced work management. "People who are victims of knowledge hiding or engage in it themselves have lower job satisfaction, are less creative, and are more likely to quit."
Anyone who suffers from the fact that colleagues keep knowledge to themselves may not be able to do their own work satisfactorily and feel left out, says Laura Venz. This could affect the entire business. "Innovation and creativity depend on multiple people bringing their ideas together."
However, addressing knowledge hiding directly is often not that easy. After all, you don't always know whether colleagues are actually intentionally withholding knowledge. Nevertheless, openly addressing one's own perception is generally the best strategy.
No generalizations ("always", "never") and no accusations should be made, according to Venz. "Ideally, addressing the issue should take place in a one-on-one conversation, but the topic of knowledge sharing can also be brought up more generally as a topic in the team meeting."
Anyone who notices tendencies towards knowledge hiding in themselves should first ask about the reasons, says the work and organizational psychologist. "If I would actually like to share knowledge, but I lack the time and energy, it would be important to communicate that and to say: It's not possible right now. Can we make an appointment?" The problems that prevent the sharing of knowledge can also be addressed at management level.
However, the reasons often lie at the organizational level. "There needs to be a culture change," says Venz. She recommends starting with promotions and distribution of benefits. "If someone always automatically ends up in first and last place, that fuels competitive pressure and knowledge hiding." Instead, employees who share knowledge and work together should be promoted. Another starting point is the workload. "The necessary resources must be available so that knowledge can be shared."
The role model function of managers also plays an important role, says Florian Offergelt. If these send out the signal that knowledge hiding is not only tolerated, but even desired, the employees orientate themselves on it. He recommends understanding knowledge management as an overarching topic and making it a standard topic in annual appraisals with employees. When leaders notice knowledge hiding, they should take vigorous action.
