Introduction

Research has demonstrated that employee creativity – the generation of novel and useful ideas (Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996) – is a key determinant of organizational innovation and success (Zhou & Hoever, 2014). Given the importance of employee creativity in predicting positive work outcomes, numerous researchers have examined its antecedents, such as empowering leadership (Zhang & Zhou, 2014), employee learning orientation (Gong, Huang, & Farh, 2009), transformational leadership (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009), highperformance work system (Tang, Yu, Cooke, & Chen, 2017), intrinsic motivation (Dewett, 2007), and job dissatisfaction (Zhou & George, 2001). However, limited studies have examined the influence of work environment impediments such as organizational politics on employee creativity (e.g., Aryee, Zhou, Sun, & Lo, 2009), particularly the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relationship. Consistent with assertions by early theorists (e.g., Gandz & Murray, 1980), Ferris and Kacmar (1992) argue that it is not actual politics that matters most to organizational outcomes rather, it is the subjective perception of organizational politics, whether actual or not, that influences an individuals’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions. This is in line with Lewin’s (1936) view that people respond on the basis of their perceptions of reality, not reality per se. Hence, we follow a definition by Ferris, Harrell-Cook, and Dulebohn (2000, p. 90) to be more appropriate to the current study: the perception of organizational politics (POP) “involves an individual’s attribution to behaviors of selfserving intent, and is defined as an individual’s subjective evaluation about the extent to which the work environment is characterized by coworkers and supervisors who demonstrate such self-serving behavior.” In the present study, we aim to investigate the relationship between POP and employee creativity through knowledge hiding and the moderating role of professional commitment in the association between POP and knowledge hiding.

۱٫۱٫ POP and knowledge hiding

Research has demonstrated that people who perceive politics at work experience negative outcomes; for instance, lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Vigoda, 2000), decreased job performance (Chang, Rosen, & Levy, 2009), and turnover intentions (Miller, Rutherford, & Kolodinsky, 2008). The link between perceived organizational politics and its outcomes can be explained by utilizing the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). The JD-R model proposes that employee well-being is influenced by two specific characteristics of the work environment i.e., job demands and job resources (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001). In this study, we focus on the former, as we are positioning perceived organizational politics as a job demand. Job demands “refer to those physical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical and/or psychological (cognitive and emotional) effort or skills and are therefore associated with certain physiological and/or psychological costs” (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007, p. 312). Examples include high work pressure, poor physical environment, and perceptions of politics in one’s workplace (Bedi & Schat, 2013). In their meta-analysis, Bedi and Schat (2013) found a positive relationship between POP and counterproductive work behaviors (e.g., arriving late, taking extended brakes, etc.) suggesting that those who experience politics may respond by engaging in such types of withdrawal. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between POP and what has been termed as “counterproductive knowledge behavior” by Serenko and Bontis (2016). Particularly, knowledge hiding, defined as an “intentional attempt by an individual to withhold or conceal knowledge that has been requested by another person” (Connelly, Zweig, Webster, & Trougakos, 2012, p. 65). We propose that in a highly political organization, employees are likely to engage in knowledge hiding behaviors for three reasons. First, employees may hide knowledge in order to protect their self-interest in a politicized environment (Cui, Park, & Paik, 2016).