Exploitative Leadership and Vertical Knowledge Withholding: Examining Multiple Mediational Effects

This study analyzes the relationship between employee’s perceptions of exploitative leadership and their vertical knowledge withholding and the mediating roles of employee’s perception of job insecurity, organizational injustice, and hostile attribution bias. A time lag study was conducted to test hypotheses by data collection in three phases from the 402 employees working in three service sectors (i.e., banking, telecommunication, and higher education) of Pakistan. Results of statistical analysis showed that (i) employees who experience high levels of exploitation from leaders are more likely to withhold knowledge; (ii) exploitative leadership has a significant influence on hostile attribution bias, perceived job insecurity, organizational injustice; (iii) perceived job insecurity and perceived organization injustice function as strong mediators between the relationship of exploitative leadership and vertical knowledge withholding; and, (iv) hostile attribution bias acts as a strong mediator between exploitative leadership and perceived job insecurity. This study explains the connection between employees’ perceptions of exploitative leadership and resultant knowledge withholding tendency, with specific consideration of individual and organizational factors to explain this process. The organizations should develop a culture within the organization that discourages knowledge withholding practices and motivates positive leader-employee relationships.