A recent paper by Tatiana Andreeva of our School of Business, together with Paola Zappa (University College London) suggests gender plays an important role in knowledge hiding at work – that is, intentionally concealing knowledge from a colleague who requested it. Their study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, explored how gender influences the frequency of knowledge hiding at work, and the approaches that knowledge hiders employ to do so. Specifically, they found that men hide their knowledge from colleagues at work more frequently, and when they do so, they experience no penalties while women do.
A key practical implication of this study is that managers should exercise caution when using practices (e.g., emphasizing competition and goal achievement) that foster behaviour fitting with (stereotypical) male social role expectations. Such practices may further encourage and legitimize knowledge hiding by men.
You can read the full study here (open access) https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joop.12444 and a brief discussion of practical implications here https://theacademic.com/gender-workplace-knowledge-sharing/