“Are you a cistern or a channel?” This is the title of a study by Jatinder Kumar Jha and Biju Varkkey of IIM Ahmedabad in the Journal of Knowledge Management. They interviewed research and development professionals in Indian pharmaceutical firms about why they hide knowledge from colleagues.
They found six triggers: distrust, a competitive work environment, perceived career insecurity, lack of recognition, lack of reciprocation and lack of confidence in one’s own knowledge. The hiding took forms such as “playing innocent” and “counterquestioning.”