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This paper aims to explore the relationships between Perceptions of Organizational Politics and Knowledge Sharing of Individual and Groups in Brazilian automotive plants.
Knowledge Sharing (KS) is a critical activity within organizations (Bartol & Srivastava, 2002; Den Hooff & De Ridder, 2004), and it refers to the acts of sharing information, ideas, suggestions, and relevant organizational experiences between individuals and groups in the context of work (Bartol & Srivastava, 2002; Todorova & Mills, 2018). KS depends on discretionary employee behaviors that occur in an interpersonal context across individual and group boundaries (Mitchell & Boyle, 2010; Okyere-Kwakye, Nor, Soehod, & Zaitul, 2019).
KS is a strategic resource for organizations (Grant, 1996), affects how individuals and groups engage with one another in the same organization (Lin, Ye, & Bi, 2014), and influences operational and financial performance, speed, innovation, and, ultimately, competitive advantage (Carvalho & Gomes, 2017; Crhová & Matošková, 2019; Teixeira, Oliveira, & Curado, 2019). Studies have discussed organizational KS enablers, such as time availability, communication, trust and transparency (Cleveland & Ellis, 2015; Probodha & Vasanthapriyan, 2019), motivation (Amayah, 2013), employee attitudes, and culture (Teixeira et al., 2019; Torres et al., 2015). Nevertheless, informal influence activities of workers also potentially affect knowledge sharing, and the literature suggests that Perceptions of Organizational Politics (POPS) potentially impact how individuals and groups share knowledge at work (Evans, Ahmed, & Qureshi, 2013; Mahmood et al., 2015; De Clercq & Belausteguigoitia, 2017).
POPS reflects an employee’s perception of the organizational climate, which is expected to influence the subsequent behavior and attitudes of that employee and others (Gupta, 2011). POPS are characterized as the strategic use of power to achieve intended ends, including ends which may run contrary to the organization’s interests (Ferris et al., 2002).
Prior research has demonstrated the ubiquity and negative effects of POPS at work (Clercq, Dimov, & Belausteguigoitia, 2016; Hochwarter, Ferris, Laird, Treadway, & Coleman Gallagher, 2010), including negative relationships with work-related engagement and job satisfaction (Breaux et al., 2009; Gupta, 2011). POPS also negatively impact relational trust (Al-alawi et al., 2007; Evans, Ahmed, & Qureshi, 2013; Mahmood et al., 2015), which represents a key antecedent to KS behavior (Evans, 2012; Wulandari, Ferdinand, & Dwiatmadja, 2018; Cleveland & Ellis, 2015; Probodha & Vasanthapriyan, 2019).
Nevertheless, the evidence regarding the effects of POPS on knowledge sharing is conflicting. Some studies suggest that POPS negatively impact KS (Al-alawi et al., 2007; Evans, Ahmed, & Qureshi, 2013; Mahmood et al., 2015), while others (e.g., Eldor, 2016) suggest that POPS can facilitate and encourage KS. Finally, additional research suggests that KS is a logical outcome of POPS as employees seek information from work to buffer the stressful components of POPS or gain knowledge that enables them to more effectively “play games” at work (Clercq et al., 2016; De Clercq & Belausteguigoitia, 2017).