Journal of Management and Business Insight
Vol. 4 No. 1 (2026)

Bridging the gap: A multi-level narrative review of leadership styles and knowledge hiding in organizations

Bilaludin Bilaludin (Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Indi Deli Fiallo Wibowo (Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
29 Jun 2026

Abstract

Purpose-This narrative review examines how ten leadership styles, transformational, transactional, servant, ethical, abusive, altruistic, empowering, exploitative, humble, and self-serving shape employee knowledge hiding behavior in organizations, along with the mediating and moderating mechanisms that condition this relationship. Methodology-Through a thematic analysis of 26 empirical and conceptual articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, this study identifies two parallel pathways of influence. It synthesizes the conceptual mechanisms underlying each leadership–knowledge hiding relationship. Findings-A supportive-relational leadership style reduces knowledge hiding through psychological ownership, prosocial motivation, meaningful work, and positive affect. In contrast, a destructive leadership style increases knowledge hiding through perceived competition, employee silence, and emotional exhaustion. Notably, empowering leadership occupies an ambiguous, paradoxical position: it reduces knowledge hiding when employees possess adequate psychological resources, but exacerbates it under high hindrance stressors and high workload, depending on employees' resource conditions. Research Limitations-As a narrative review, this study did not systematically assess the methodological quality of individual articles. Most of the reviewed studies rely on cross-sectional designs, which limit causal inference, and the literature is dominated by East Asian and Western contexts, raising questions about the generalizability of the proposed framework to other cultural settings, such as Southeast Asia. Novelty-Building on social learning theory, social exchange theory, and conservation of resources theory, this study proposes a multi-level, multi-path conceptual framework. It demonstrates that the same mediating construct can produce opposing effects depending on the leadership context in which it operates, a finding that advances understanding beyond the single-style, single-mediator model.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

JOMBI

Publisher

Subject

Humanities Decision Sciences, Operations Research & Management Economics, Econometrics & Finance Social Sciences

Description

Journal of Management and Business Insight (JOMBI) is a peer-reviewed journal published two times per year (May and November) by the Faculty of Economics and Business, Ahmad Dahlan University, Indonesia. This journal is intended to be the journal for publishing articles reporting the results of ...