A Pattern of Identifying Knowledge Sabotage in Public Organizations

Purpose: In today's world, knowledge is a fundamental element in defining the value and necessity of human capital as the main factor for the survival and maintenance of the superiority of organizations. In this era, where overall quality and sustainable development are of primary importance for competition, efficiency is only possible through the successful use of human resource knowledge. Human resources, with their knowledge, skills, and talents, cause the progress and development of organizations. Material assets are not considered the main wealth of organizations, but human resource knowledge is recognized as the main and strategic asset of organizations. Knowledge is a set of awareness, understanding, or information obtained through experience or study and is the source of achieving efficiency, solving problems, and making decisions in human resources. In addition to creating distinctions between individuals, human resource knowledge can be a valuable resource for increasing the competitive advantage of the organization and helping to improve the strategy and performance of the organization to achieve organizational goals. In fact, the vital part that turns human resource knowledge into the wealth of organizations is that human resources must use their knowledge completely and correctly to advance the organization's programs and transfer it to others. Since human behavior is largely unpredictable and is influenced by various factors, organizations are always faced with people who, despite the efforts of the organization's management to optimize internal knowledge and create a knowledge-based environment with sustainable progress and growth for employees, cause deviations and sabotage behaviors in the organization. The presence of people with sabotage behaviors can reduce the productivity of the organization and other employees. One of these behavioral deviations that exists among human resources today and has caused great damage to organizational structures is known as knowledge sabotage. Knowledge sabotage occurs when an employee intentionally hides or misrepresents specific knowledge they possess, knowing that the knowledge is essential for the other party. Such individuals often seek to gain or maintain power, authority, influence, or some kind of preferential or favored behavior with the intention of undermining management or one of their colleagues who deliberately commits knowledge sabotage. They fear that if they fully disclose their knowledge to others, they will lose their power because they tend to dominate others through their knowledge. Knowledge sabotage behaviors affect the overall image of the organization and may cause negative publicity for the organization, degrade its position in today's highly competitive environment, and reduce the organization's chances of attracting and retaining the best human resources.
Methodology: The present study was designed using the research onion model of Saunders et al. (2016) and a mixed approach (qualitative-quantitative) to identify and validate the knowledge sabotage pattern in government organizations in Lorestan province. In the research philosophy layer, this study was placed within the framework of the pragmatism paradigm, which allows the use of interpretive aspects for the qualitative part (identifying the pattern by examining meanings and subjective experiences) and positivist aspects for the quantitative part (statistical validation of the pattern). Pragmatism resolves the philosophical contradictions between qualitative and quantitative approaches by focusing on practical problem-solving. From the perspective of the approach, the research was of an exploratory-explanatory type, which first proceeded with an inductive approach to identify the pattern and then with a deductive approach to validate it, as follows: This research is categorized as qualitative research. The research participants were university professors and senior and middle managers of government organizations in Lorestan Province, who were selected using the theoretical sampling method. Therefore, based on the theoretical saturation rule, this important issue was addressed in the present study using 12 interviews. The required data were collected using semi-structured interviews, and data analysis was conducted using Clark and Brown’s content analysis method.
Findings: Data analysis resulted in the formation of 132 primary codes, 16 subthemes, and three main themes. The main themes identified were individual, organizational, and environmental factors. The subthemes identified were: self-centered personality traits, emotional incongruence, power-seeking motives, lack of communication skills, habit of professional isolation, weak ethical values, competitive organizational culture, ineffective reward systems, lack of knowledge management training, poor performance monitoring, limited organizational resources, lack of organizational empathy, organizational distrust, economic pressures, competitive culture of society, and political and factional relations Research.
limitations/implications: Regarding the limitations of the present study, it is necessary to explain, considering the purpose and type of research that the interview process and the opinions of experts had to be used, so this included a limitation in the number of samples and difficulty in accessing experts. Additionally, among the most important limitations of this study, it can be noted that it is new and there are no studies on this subject in the country, which means that researchers were faced with research limitations in this field. Another limitation of this study was that it was conducted within a specific time period; thus, it reflects the opinions of the respondents within a limited time period. Knowledge sabotage in government organizations in Lorestan Province is a serious structural and cultural challenge that not only hinders progress and innovation but also directly affects the quality of service delivery to the public. This phenomenon means the failure to transfer, improper storage, or even concealment and deliberate prevention of the effective sharing of information, experiences, and best practices within and between different units of the organization. In a government environment whose main capital is organizational knowledge and employee experience, this "sabotage" leads to a waste of financial and human resources, the repetition of past costly mistakes, a decrease in the speed of adaptation to changes, and ultimately, a significant decline in organizational productivity and legitimacy. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the three factors (individual, organizational, and environmental) affecting this phenomenon in the context of government organizations in Lorestan Province and to provide operational solutions to combat it.
Originality/value: This study not only helps to better understand knowledge degradation in the local context but also provides a framework for designing local solutions that can be applied in other regions with similar characteristics.