What Kind of Knowledge Is Concealed by Project Team Members? (Case Study: Oil Industries’ Commissioning and Operation Company (OICO))

Abstract

Knowledge hiding is one of the new concepts in the management of organizational knowledge. Although the nature of the relationship between projects teams members will have a substantial impact on the knowledge hiding behavior, different characteristics of Knowledge can also affect knowledge hiding. Based on the behaviors of the project teams, the aim of this research is to identify what characteristics of transferred knowledge between team members will lead to hiding or sharing it. The research model consisted of 4 variables: knowledge complexity, knowledge uniqueness, knowledge relatedness and knowledge sharing cost determined by the review of the literature and consultation with experts in management. The project team members were randomly selected and the data were gathered through a questionnaire. The results of the factor analysis and regression analysis showed that the uniqueness of knowledge had the greatest impact on knowledge hiding.